Is VIP really worth it?

[IBSQUARED]

When I created an account on this website, a couple of months ago, I asked myself what I, myself, would possibly get out of it. The site wasn't really as active as it is now, and there was only a 50 post requirement for VIP status. Apparently, the people on this site try to "help" each other, and when you "help" enough people, you get that luxurious VIP beside your name. Actually, its more of a + sign, but meh.

Anyway, even with my lack of free time, I thought I would join the site for the lulz, and maybe help a few IB students that I could relate to - stuff that I was going through, or have already been through. To add to that, I learned that 50 posts was a "download" requirement. So, technically, you have to make at least fifty posts to download old, half-decent math IAs without any marking rubric, or some syllabus notes, made by a level 4 student, which are heavily lacking in detail.

[Removed a bit of text due to privacy concerns. -Graeme]

I've seen SO MANY semi-active people (obviously they want to do good in school too) who have been on here for months without getting VIP. And then the mods go and delete your posts, and up the post requirement for VIP!? Maybe I'm just mad cause I don't have VIP after helping so many people, but honestly, I don't need it - and you probably don't either.

Also, you can find all the exams on this website: http://www.freeexampapers.com/Dndex.php?d=SUI=

How's that for help?

Anyway, your helpful little moderators will probably ban me and remove the link so they can let you waste more time trying to achieve VIP status, but enjoy it whilst it's up.

PS: you should never log in from school - its a ban-able offense, lul

[biochem]

I, in all honesty, have not seen you posting around much. And I dwell over the science, ib discussion, language boards.

You mention not having enough time, or being somewhat inactive. And quiet frankly, the site runs well because so many wonderful people are willing to answer questions quickly. Anytime I have something on my mind, I get it answered in detail rather quickly. Have you tried talking to the moderator first, instead of trying to voice your thoughts to the general public. In personal experience, I always find resolving the issue directly with the person I am upset with always forms a resolution which is wonderfully solved.

I wish u best of luck on your IB journey and I hope you find somethnig useful out of this website, it has many beneficial aspects. I am just grateful, that a community was able to notify me on things which my newly established teachers didn't do. I think the last 2 IB internal assessments I went through scored a 98-100% grade, because of some of the advice I got here. try to findthe good in things, especially in stressful environments like IB.

[Graeme]

All right, as an Administrator I feel that I ought to reply to this, and perhaps other VIPs can also comment, so that people can make up their own minds.

When I created an account on this website, a couple of months ago, I asked myself what I, myself, would possibly get out of it. The site wasn't really as active as it is now, and there was only a 50 post requirement for VIP status. Apparently, the people on this site try to "help" each other, and when you "help" enough people, you get that luxurious VIP beside your name. Actually, its more of a + sign, but meh.

We do not boast to have a perfect system, but we try to have a system where people who simply want to download files to save their asses are stopped from doing just that. Don't get me wrong, it's not perfect, but I'll be honest that out of over 8000 registered members, you are the first to be passionate enough to write a post about your objections. Now, my understanding is that you broke the rules. I personally am not aware of exactly what happened, but I have to trust my fellow administrators and moderators.

Anyway, even with my lack of free time, I thought I would join the site for the lulz, and maybe help a few IB students that I could relate to - stuff that I was going through, or have already been through. To add to that, I learned that 50 posts was a "download" requirement. So, technically, you have to make at least fifty posts to download old, half-decent math IAs without any marking rubric, or some syllabus notes, made by a level 4 student, which are heavily lacking in detail.

I'm not sure what a "level 4" student is, but I do know that all the work posted on this site (past IAs etc) are given with the mark they received (from the IB). If you download a sample IA that received a 7, and you think it sucks, that's not our fault. We have a wide variety of work here, and not all of it is written by geniuses. If people want a perfect report, go to a library and read published books and reports. I should add that this site has thousands of files, so your suggestion that you get to "download old, half-decent math IAs...." is quite limited. Once again, we are not perfect, and this site isn't perfect. This is partly because the students who are nice enough to share their work here, and help each other, are also imperfect. We are all still human.

Anyway, your helpful little moderators will probably ban me and remove the link so they can let you waste more time trying to achieve VIP status, but enjoy it whilst it's up.

PS: you should never log in from school - its a ban-able offense, lul

Don't really understand your last comment, but I can definitely sense your anger. As we are civilised, dissent is welcome, just make sure you remain constructive.

[masson]

Any idiot who can use google can find past papers.

Well, the thing is not every idiot in the world has enough experience to efficiently use google to find past exam papers. Personally, the idiot in me finds it extremely hard to waste 4-5 hrs trying to look for useful IB exams. However, I do thank ibsurvival and congratulate it for being able to help fellow ibers without any hesitation. However, we should not be so mean to IBSQUARED, he is trying to help out the non-vip ers at ibsurvival who are slowly trying to gain access to vip. Although one can say that you can simply buy vip, I say to them that not every one of us has a credit card to be able to pay online, and we have other needs to take care of. IBSQUARED is simply trying to help the non-vips @ ibsurvival with a link to past exams without any strings attached. Although you say that it is illegal to give out IB exams online, but aren't we doing the same at this community? I say thank you IBSQUARED for providing up with a direct link to the exams without having to search the entire night for some useful exams.

Edited January 19, 2009 by masson

[Graeme]

Masson, I understand where you are coming from. Obviously I was just trying to say (albeit rather crudely) that past papers are available out there, and that we do not make past papers publicly available.

[deissi]

Even though you've already regained VIP status, I feel I am still entitled to reply to this.

Anyway, even with my lack of free time, I thought I would join the site for the lulz, and maybe help a few IB students that I could relate to.

I don't see how your lack of free time has anything to do with this. We all have a lack of free time, it's a question about allocating it. If you want to allocate it to this site, great! If not, then I hope you spend it better somewhere else.

old, half-decent math IAs without any marking rubric, or some syllabus notes, made by a level 4 student, which are heavily lacking in detail.

First of all, as for the old IAs. Do you seriously suggest we upload current IAs and, thus, let people cheat. Yes, it's cheating and it will never happen on IB Survival. Besides, it would mean that an IB Alumni would have to solve the task and then get it graded somewhere (where?), as current students can't upload unassessed work. Also, we have several IAs in the 7 band, so there goes that argument. As for the notes, you don't have to use them, I don't know whether the student is level 4 or not . Take it or leave it.

[Mahuta ♥]

Personally, it seems to be that you only registered to take advantage. I registered because I liked the fact that there's a website

where we can share and get suggestions from each other. I was never that desperate for VIP, its not the end of the world. But its

nice when you get it, proves that you've been quite helpful to the site. I dont see this site as a downloading site at all. I also think

that no one should put that in mind. After all, its called a forum, not a sharing website.

[Graeme]

At the top of the site (top right) you'll see a link that says "Rules"

http://www.ibsurvival.com/forum/index.php?act=boardrules

You can read all the rules there.

In this particular case (which incidentally is now resolved), the following was relevant:

VIP membership is non-transferable and is for your personal use only: Only one person is allowed to own and make use of each VIP username. We reserve the right to suspend any VIP membership and/or permanently ban the username if we suspect the username in question has been shared by more than one person.

[Abu]

When I created an account on this website, a couple of months ago, I asked myself what I, myself, would possibly get out of it. The site wasn't really as active as it is now, and there was only a 50 post requirement for VIP status. Apparently, the people on this site try to "help" each other, and when you "help" enough people, you get that luxurious VIP beside your name. Actually, its more of a + sign, but meh.

Anyway, even with my lack of free time, I thought I would join the site for the lulz, and maybe help a few IB students that I could relate to - stuff that I was going through, or have already been through. To add to that, I learned that 50 posts was a "download" requirement. So, technically, you have to make at least fifty posts to download old, half-decent math IAs without any marking rubric, or some syllabus notes, made by a level 4 student, which are heavily lacking in detail.

[Removed a bit of text due to privacy concerns. -Graeme]

I've seen SO MANY semi-active people (obviously they want to do good in school too) who have been on here for months without getting VIP. And then the mods go and delete your posts, and up the post requirement for VIP!? Maybe I'm just mad cause I don't have VIP after helping so many people, but honestly, I don't need it - and you probably don't either.

Also, you can find all the exams on this website: http://www.freeexampapers.com/Dndex.php?d=SUI=

How's that for help?

Anyway, your helpful little moderators will probably ban me and remove the link so they can let you waste more time trying to achieve VIP status, but enjoy it whilst it's up.

PS: you should never log in from school - its a ban-able offense, lul

Is that what one gets for replying to your PM respectfully? To be referred to in sarcasm? We delete spammy posts so that the forum is a better place for all, and yeah if a post doesn't pass the mark, it's marked as spam therefore is deleted. Honestly, waste all the bloody time in the world, members who are worth their time here get VIP-ed before they reach the boundary level for VIP.

If you think that you joined the site, despite your apparent lack of free time, to help the forum members, oh wow you do deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. Well guess what? Every member that is on this site doesn't have the time to loiter about on a forum. The staff here can go away, and most of the active staff here are done with IB. Most of us have university to attend, coursework to finish and events to attend. Yet we make time out of our schedule to be here.

Furthermore, as I have told you before, your post quality was not that great, and you disappeared after getting VIP. After losing VIP, you chose to be active again and repost in an attempt to regain VIP.

If VIP isn't that important to you, and you think that the files here are rudimentary and not up to your standard, why did you bother regaining VIP? It's worthless as per your statement above.

Congratulations on regaining VIP after your pissy fit above. Well 'worth' it indeed

[CodeRed15]

When I created an account on this website, a couple of months ago, I asked myself what I, myself, would possibly get out of it. The site wasn't really as active as it is now, and there was only a 50 post requirement for VIP status. Apparently, the people on this site try to "help" each other, and when you "help" enough people, you get that luxurious VIP beside your name. Actually, its more of a + sign, but meh.

Anyway, even with my lack of free time, I thought I would join the site for the lulz, and maybe help a few IB students that I could relate to - stuff that I was going through, or have already been through. To add to that, I learned that 50 posts was a "download" requirement. So, technically, you have to make at least fifty posts to download old, half-decent math IAs without any marking rubric, or some syllabus notes, made by a level 4 student, which are heavily lacking in detail.

[Removed a bit of text due to privacy concerns. -Graeme]

I've seen SO MANY semi-active people (obviously they want to do good in school too) who have been on here for months without getting VIP. And then the mods go and delete your posts, and up the post requirement for VIP!? Maybe I'm just mad cause I don't have VIP after helping so many people, but honestly, I don't need it - and you probably don't either.

Also, you can find all the exams on this website: http://www.freeexampapers.com/Dndex.php?d=SUI=

How's that for help?

Anyway, your helpful little moderators will probably ban me and remove the link so they can let you waste more time trying to achieve VIP status, but enjoy it whilst it's up.

PS: you should never log in from school - its a ban-able offense, lul

I see where you're coming from IBSQUARED but maybe you could be a little nicer? I mean the mods here are trying there best to make this community helpful and flourish.

But other than that thanks for the link although I was already aware of it and hope things get better and you continue to contribute to the forums.

Edited January 19, 2009 by CodeRed15

[Graeme]

I think everyone can calm down a bit. This issue has been resolved and I think we can all move on now .

[~Lc~]

Well, the thing is not every idiot in the world has enough experience to efficiently use google to find past exam papers. Personally, the idiot in me finds it extremely hard to waste 4-5 hrs trying to look for useful IB exams. However, I do thank ibsurvival and congratulate it for being able to help fellow ibers without any hesitation. However, we should not be so mean to IBSQUARED, he is trying to help out the non-vip ers at ibsurvival who are slowly trying to gain access to vip. Although one can say that you can simply buy vip, I say to them that not every one of us has a credit card to be able to pay online, and we have other needs to take care of. IBSQUARED is simply trying to help the non-vips @ ibsurvival with a link to past exams without any strings attached. Although you say that it is illegal to give out IB exams online, but aren't we doing the same at this community? I say thank you IBSQUARED for providing up with a direct link to the exams without having to search the entire night for some useful exams.

No IBSquared gained VIP, then shared his account with his friend so as to allow him to use the VIP as well! now how do you think that makes us feel?

@Biochem: he has PMed me twice and I've explained the matter to him, but he seems to think he's above the rules aparently. I don't really like the idea that you've VIPed again! but since Graeme made that decision I guess I'll just stand by it. But seriously going around and making a big drama about it won't make anyone like you anymore.

As Graeme said this is not a eprfect system, but it is our system and we try to run it as best as we could, once you leave IB and start havign a real life it's very hard for you to be motivated to want to help anyone doing IB anymore, and the fact that we're still on here trying to give some help every once in a while should mean something... I'd like to see if you'll hang around and help "non VIPers" once you're done and recieved your diploma!

sorry for the bitterness, but I do hate drama! anyway that's my two cents...