Warning: this is gonna be a huge trip to memory-land, but PLEASE read it until the end. Maybe আপনি might feel the same.
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Two years ago, when I first joined fanpop, things were a lot different here. I was 15 years old and I only watched one TV show: Heroes. I was insanely addicted to that প্রদর্শনী (I still am, it’s my সেকেন্ড পছন্দ প্রদর্শনী ever) and I was searching for some episodes online on some যেভাবে খুশী site. That site (I have no idea which one is now, Lol) had a lot of লিঙ্ক to episodes, and some of those লিঙ্ক bought me to fanpop.

The first think I noticed about this site was those funny options things where আপনি could vote, also known as picks. =P
And those were the reason why, in June of 2007, I joined this site. To answer those picks and eventually get spoiled about future episodes I hadn’t seen yet. xD (if আপনি watch Heroes, আপনি know how it works, in season 1, people were always dying there. LOL)
I got totally addicted and I joined the নায়ক spot, and I eventually made my own first link. That pick gave my first শ্রদ্ধার্ঘ্য ever, দ্বারা no other than Dave (YAY, thank আপনি Dave <3), and I swear I jumped around the house when I saw the little শ্রদ্ধার্ঘ্য thing. xD
Then I made some আরো picks. =) It was the only thing I was doing on fanpop, lol. (It’s sill my পছন্দ way of contributing, because I প্রণয় to choose the right প্রতিমূর্তি to add, and I প্রণয় to read other people’s comments.)
So, after 15 picks on the নায়ক spot, I got my first Dedicated medal ever... And almost a heart-attack when I saw it. হাঃ হাঃ হাঃ xD
See, on those days, it wasn’t very common to watch people with many medals. It was VERY rare to find people with fanatics, I think I only met one অথবা two.
Back then, the নায়ক spot was the spot with আরো অনুরাগী and the most জনপ্রিয় (which made me extremely happy, yay go Heroes! xD). It had about 3000 fans, and I might be very wrong, but I’m pretty sure it hadn’t had আরো than this. Yea, pretty crazy right? Considering how much অনুরাগী the Twilight spot has now. Lol

But this was then.
For some reason, I went un-active a few months. Season 2 of নায়ক was starting and I didn’t want to be spoiled দ্বারা picks, since I was waiting for it to come on TV (which took quite time actually, it sucks to live in Portugal). Also, I was running out of ideas for picks. LOL

Months later I got back and I had started to watch other shows. So I joined আরো spots, like One বৃক্ষ পাহাড় and Supernatural.
OTH is my পছন্দ প্রদর্শনী ever, and my সেকেন্ড dedicated medal was for that spot, also with just picks.
Then I started to add চলচ্ছবি and my first die hard was for that spot, I got it on August of 2008.
My first Fanatic medal was for that spot too. Now, আপনি don’t ever forget your Fanatics (especially your first), so I know that I got on October 22nd of 2008. I also know I’m a nerd for knowing that date.
দ্বারা December, I was the 6th শীর্ষ contributer of that spot.
And right now, I’m proudly the 3rd. =]

And this is what happens when আপনি work hard to something. All the wait and all the work feels undeniably great.

But situations like these are আরো rare and rare these days. And I guess that’s the point of this article.
আপনি see, I must really be a naïve person, because it took me a LONG time to figuring out the medal system. I had no idea what kind of “amount” of contribution was needed. And when one time, I read somewhere that the ratings helped, I thought WE had to give ratings to get medals. So I kinda rated ALL the চলচ্ছবি on the OTH spot. হাঃ হাঃ হাঃ (I don’t regret it btw, I found some great চলচ্ছবি there xD). Anyways, silly me for being slow, no wonder why people call me “looser” অথবা “Joey”. =P

Some new অনুরাগী aren’t naïve at all. In fact, they were very quickly to understanding that whole thing. So it’s simple, they ask people to rate their stuff.
There was a ratings ফোরাম on the OTH spot, on the বন্ধু spot and maybe on others spots too. All আপনি had to do was posting লিঙ্ক of your stuff and people would rate it. Those ফোরাম no longer exist, they were deleted, because it wasn’t a fair way of getting medals. I honestly couldn’t have agreed আরো with this decision.
Now, those new অনুরাগী (new fans, not the অনুরাগী who were using those forums), are fully aware of this. So instead of having a forum, they do it দ্বারা messages. They message other users asking for ratings. As I see it, this is exactly the same thing as having a forum, except that with messages, there is no prove of the cheating. This kind of cheating is like air, আপনি don’t see it. But আপনি know it’s there.

A lot of users have an incredible number of পদক right now. All because of those ratings.

At this moment, I have 26 dedicated medals, 17 die-hard পদক and 7 fanatic medals.
I’m a member of ফ্যানপপ আরো than two years now. And I feel really accomplished.
Trust me, it’s not about the medals. It’s how far I’ve went, from having zero medals, to have 50.
So, I think it’s very unfair to see some users – cheating users – who are here, for less than FIVE MONTHS to have way আরো পদক than me অথবা other users, that work harder for them.

It’s not even about the medals, it’s about the content that they add to getting those medals. To add icons, all আপনি have to do is find some LiveJournals অথবা some অনুরাগী sites. Also, আপনি can add repeated ones. And it gets even easier when আপনি ask other people to rate them.
Now imagine how I feel, when I’m working for a medal, adding stuff and NOT asking anybody to rate them for me, to witness situations like these.
Let me just use a couple of hypothetical examples.
Let’s say a certain user added, 75 চলচ্ছবি and 120 প্রতিমূর্তি to a spot.
Let’s say I added 875 চলচ্ছবি and 1485 প্রতিমূর্তি to the same spot. Which means, I added আরো than 800 চলচ্ছবি and 1000 প্রতিমূর্তি than that user. Now, let’s say we both have Die-Hard medals.
Does this scream fair to you?

Other example. Hypothetical. On other totally different spot, with much less অনুরাগী than the first one.
A user added 170 চলচ্ছবি and 130 images. That user has a Fanatic. She’s the শীর্ষ contributor.
Other user added 20 চলচ্ছবি and 200 images. That user has a die-hard. She’s the সেকেন্ড শীর্ষ contributor.
I added 350 চলচ্ছবি and 1500 images. I have a die-hard. I’m the third শীর্ষ contributor.
Fair? Excuse me for not thinking so.

The thing is I don’t even care about medals. I don’t. This is about other people taking me the pleasure of feeling ACCOMPLISHED. How can I feel that way, knowing that I worked so hard, knowing that I waited months and knowing that some other user got it easily with less work and in two weeks?

I’m not the only one who feels this way.
Some other people do too. Some other people tried to do something about it. And I watched some of them getting banned. We হারিয়ে গেছে Myra, the শীর্ষ contributor of all ফ্যানপপ because of this mess.
Myra, who I truly admire because of her work. There are a lot of people who might not like her. But even those, আপনি can’t honestly say that Myra didn’t work for her পদক and that she didn’t deserve EVERY SINGLE ONE of them. Because she did. And not only just her. Gogokef, Clarkfan, Addie, Tvfan95. Does this names ring any ঘণ্টা to you?
I hope whoever who is পাঠ করা this, understands what this প্রবন্ধ is about. This is not me bragging and/or trying to get আরো medals. This is me trying to stop unfair situations.

The ফ্যানপপ 4 built the best site on Earth, hands down. This is not just about picks for me now, lol. I spend most of the times talking on ফোরাম and I met the most amazing অনুরাগী here. <3
So, I’m not, in any way, trying to tell them what to do. But I can’t help to say that this rating system It’s not working. In my opinion (and notice that this is just an OPINION), I think the ratings shouldn’t count as much. They can count, but not as much as they do now.
On one side, I think the চলচ্ছবি should be considerate আরো important. আপনি can add all the প্রতিমূর্তি আপনি want, all the times আপনি want, but আপনি can’t add repeated videos. And if আপনি notice, the users that “cheat”, don’t add much videos. It’s not hard to understand why. But on the other hand, there aren’t as many চলচ্ছবি of one subject as there are images, so yea, it’s not right than the চলচ্ছবি count আরো than images.. In the end, it’s better to leave this situation to the people who know the best, aka the ফ্যানপপ 4. =P

I was just trying to express how I feel about this.
Sorry If I offend anyone. I didn’t use any names, just to avoid that.
I’m not trying to get anyone banned, like I don’t want to be banned. I প্রণয় this site way too much.

I guess this is what I’m trying to say:
I honestly don’t know why people cheat to get medals. There’s no better feeling than getting new পদক when আপনি least expect it. Especially if one of those পদক is a fanatic. আপনি get the accomplished feeling and when আপনি told other users about, they also get REALLY happy (sometimes happier than আপনি ;)), because they know how hard it is to get a medal. And they totally শ্রদ্ধার্ঘ্য spam the hell out of you. LOL

This feeling is great. Don’t take it away from fanpop. There’s no point of having 20 fanatics if they feel like a normal medal to you.
Let’s get this feeling back! =]

EDIT: There’s something I think it’s relevant and I forgot to add. The thing is that, the “cheating” users I mentioned above, don’t just message each other asking for ratings, they also ask to rate others users stuff low. Some users tried to stop the cheating, but not only they couldn’t do it, they saw their perfectly fine stuff being rated with one star.

I’ve saw/read one of those messages, sent দ্বারা one “cheating” user. I think someone has that message screen caped somewhere. The content of the message was simple, it ব্যক্ত to rate everything of their “friends” group high (as in 5 stars), and rate everything of the users who tried to stop the cheating low (as in 1 star).
And I’ve seen stuff rated low.

Seriously, who wastes their time like this? Also, who wastes their time creating tons of fake accounts? Because those are against the ফ্যানপপ rules, but I’ve seen a LOT of them. I think it’s just mean, not only they are getting পদক not playing fair, but they are making it hard for other users to get them. Users than DON’T cheat.

This is not what ফ্যানপপ is about.

Again, I apologize If it seems that I’m লেখা this just to attack someone.
That’s not really my point.

This is just to প্রদর্শনী how tired I am of all the situation. =/

To finish.. I promise this is my last edit. LOL
This প্রবন্ধ has 5 pages on Word already, I don’t think I would be লেখা as much if this was for a school paper. XD