Reputation has temporarily been disabled.

[Clarity]

Reputation is off pending a review of its efficacy, shortcomings and value.

While something this morning prompted the action, it's been a long time coming as reputation has always been the most controversial aspect of this site, has provoked more issues than any other feature, and is by far the most abused.

If you have a perspective on reputation, I would appreciate it if you would share it here. Do you like it or not? Why? How could it be better if you think it's worth keeping? Why would that make it better?

Talk. I'm going to sleep, I'll check this later today when I get up, and we'll figure out where to go from there.

--edit--
Added the poll, but that is not to be considered an alternative to participating in this thread. I'm hoping for a ton of feedback here, and as much constructive dialog as possible. I don't need or want everyone to agree on this topic, I just need to take 'our' pulse.

--edit2--
No, none of the reputation data has been lost. It's just been switched off for the day.

 

[exhawg]

Too bad you got rid of rep or I would have to ding you for getting rid of it. :p

But seriously if you want to fix it you need to get rid if the anonymity of the rep system. If people knew who gives out the dings that would get rid of the abuse. I know I've given out (mostly to flamers) and received my share of anonymous dings. Well that's my 2 cents.

 

[Clarity]

Good start.

To everyone else, if you vote "Modify and restore it", then I expect you to chime in on HOW to modify it. I can see who votes which way.

 

[BuckeyeSkins]

I personally like the idea of the reputation system. When it's used in the manner I think it was designed to be used, it gives you an idea of what your fellow posters think of what you've said about a particular subject. It gives you an idea of which posters other posters feel are credible and respected. The only downside to the whole thing is something that many others have voiced their displeasure with. The fact that someone can "ding" you for something they may not agree with and do it annonymously. I think thats wrong. If you're going to give someone a ding that's all fine and well but you should also have the balls to sign your name to it and not hide behind annonimity. I don't expect everyone to agree with everything I say on the board but at least admit who you are. Just my 2 cents on the matter. Now I'll put the soapbox away.

edit: for spelling

 

[bucknut11]

That sounds like a good idea, exhawg. I think the anonymous dingings are bad. I wonder too if there is a way to stop "ding-backs." A few times when I've dinged somebody, they didn't like that and almost immediately they hit me back, not for anything I posted, but just because they didn't like losing Rep points.

Another thought, which Clarity has even mentioned before is to "scale down" the reps. I know that there are a ton of posters who have maxxed out their 11 green (and red, in a few cases) rubies very quickly. I think Clarity's original idea was dividing everything by 10 so that it'd take years to max out (unless, of course you're Mili...). This would give us a better idea of who has a better track record vs. someone who has just made a few good posts.

Overall, though, I like the system. Slight mods, but keep it.

Keep up the good work, Clarity....

 

[ScarletInMyVeins]

Personally I like the idea of having reputation points but I do think that it needs a little tweaking. I think it's too easy for one to max out on positive/negative rubies. For instance if Mili were to give me any kind of rep I'd probably be maxed out because of all of the points he has. What if you made it to where everyone "gave" the same amount of points no matter who they were, say 20 points per person per time. That would make it harder to max out and one person wouldn't adversely affect the score of the person receiving rep. If someone had a really good post they would receive rep from a number of posters and their score would go up but as it is now it takes just one negative rep from Mili, Di... err Alan, Grad, BN27 etc. to take all of that away.

Something else that would be cool is if you could "cash" in your rubies for vCash. Say once you reach a certain amount of rep points you get 500 or 1000 vCash and start over with rep points. It's not like everyone on the site doesn't know who the knowledgable/fun posters are vs. the ****head/Tibor/Bret posters are

The thing I do like about rep points is that I can give someone a compliment or a lashing without a PM and everyone on the board doesn't have to see it, and the person recieving rep feels like they've gotten something out of it. Kinda like getting the smiley face stickers on your homework in grade school. I know, that was a stupid analogy but it's all I could think of.

Edit: Just thought of another thing. You could impliment a notification system to let posters know when they have recieved any kind of reputation. Have it say "congratulations, you have just recieved positive reputation from Thump" or "Sorry, you have just recieved negative reputation from ExWolverine". I've mentioned this before in the Admin forum but I don;t know if anyone ever looked at the post.

By the way, keep up the great work Clarity.

 

[DEBuckeye]

I think exhawg's idea is a good one (worthy of a positive rep jewel). It does seem that most of the complaining results from anonymous dinging. Someone mentioned "ding backs" (sounds like ding bats)- is there a way to keep someone from reciprocating immediately? Kind of like waiting three days before buying a handgun....

 

[daddyphatsacs]

I like the idea of reputations, it gives incentive for posting good material. The way that I would like it changed is by having every positive or negative "ding" carry the name of ther person who handed it out. That eliminates the anonymous dinging problem.

 

[FKAGobucks877]

I like a tweaked rep system. This may be too much work to implement, but what if you established different "tiers" to the rep system? As mentioned above, certain posters have a lot of power in their green and red chiclet-giving power. I know the way the system is set up now, it basically eliminates that, but what if we set up the rep system like the warning system is set up? Have the person giving the rep points pick a category and level of points to award. For instance, to follow bucknut11's example, when dinging someone you could mark the ding under the category "You're a Fucking Troll", and that hits them with 100 red rubies. On the flip side, if you think somebody's argument is just weak, you hit them with a ding under the category "Logic", then explain why their logic sucks. That ding would only be one red ruby.

Obviously, this is probably way too complicated to set up, plus it's probably overkill, as you can currently write anything you want in the ding, but right now all dings are pretty much worth the same, depending on who you are and how often you ding, plus of course how often you ding specific people. Ok, forget it, just make it so we can see who dinged us.

 

[Thump]

I agree that if there is a way for a poster's name to automatically be listed on any positive or negative dings that would be a good start.


To me, that's the main problem I see.

 

[tibor75]

The best part about the system is that it weeds out the crybabies and whiners.
And it also helps to know what moderators are obsessed with a particular poster's rep points.

 

[MegaWoody]

I know that the chicklets have modified my behavior in a positive way. Sometimes, when I'd get carried away with a criticism-turned-screed/flame, I'd get a red one and that would bring me back down to earth.

Now I pride myself on only earning the little spearmint ones.

Perhaps diluting them, so that you got a bean for every fifth positive or megative post would make them more precious. But that might also cause chicklet inflation, with people handing them out like candy.

I think they're fine the way they are. But if you make any change, make them harder to earn.

 

[AKAK]

Hmm-

I'd vot to keep it... also, I would agree that the anonymous nature of it needs to go away... actually I get just as frustrated when I get positives for no reason that I can tell and people don't sign it.... I want to know who the idiots are that give me positive rep for bad posts.

Other things...

-The 11 green chicklet limit is pretty outdated at this point... I figure we're at the point where there is a need for two or 3 levels of colors (Maybe 4)... if we're just going to keep using the same space...

-I think the good thing about it is that it maintains a good way of keeping people in check as far as the flaming and starting stupid posts... it is bad when people use it just to disagree, except that I've also seen people get upset when they get dinged because someone disagreed with them but they made a horrible argument...ie they probably deserved it. so I like that "think before you run off at the mouth" aspect it holds out there....

- Maybe there also needs to be a diminishing impact any one user can have... I mean if mili or grad21 or someine dings you...its pretty hardcore... compared to whatever the 'average' rep might be...

 

[The KSB]

I would certainly agree with the anonimity being removed. Overall I like having a rep system in place.

 

[BuckeyeNation27]

i voted too soon. i picked keep it as is, but i like the ideas of getting rid of the anonymous dings and making it take longer to max out.

i really dont understand why people get so uptight about these things. its just reputation points.

maybe you should add a feature where you can disable somebodies rep points remotely if they bitch about it. bitching about somebody dinging you gets an automatic ding in my book, and im pretty sure it does with others too. i know ive gotten anonymous dings that made no sense.....i didnt get on the thread bitching about it. who really cares?