Reputation system.

[CzaD]

Dear Instinct,

I would like to ask you if it is possible to explain to me how the reputation system works on this forum. You wrote that we can't rate the same person again and again. I found that it is true in my case: I need to spread a lot points to rate the same person again.

Now, what happened to me is that a single person have happened to take away about 30 points in total (always taking away 5 points) from me. Within the last 2 weeks alone, he took away 15 points. The strangest thing that happened to me that he managed to -rep me twice on the same day.

He never gave any reason for taking away reputation from me; just left a "." as an explanation, which I find silly and not helpful at all.

It appears that one person can manipulate the whole system and use privileges that perhaps nobody else is entitled to. He not only can - rep anybody again and again, but also he takes away a large number of points every single time. One person managed to take away a number of points from me which exceeds the average on the forum and a number of points that have been given to me by more than 10 people.

If it is true that means that the whole reputation system doesn't seem to work properly. More than 20 people +repped me and gave me more than 50 points in total and one person managed to take 30 away from them. As much as I am flattered by the amount of attention given to me by my "secret admirer" who always pays so much attention to my posts, I don't think this is any good for the whole reputation system in general.

Regards,

CzaD

[kis12134]

The only negative rep point that I have is someone that accused me of insulting while nothing on my reply had curse words and that I was replying to a "dead" thread that the last reply was 3 years old.

[Retia Adolf]

Kinda pointless knowing how it works as reputation is basically only used to "I agree with this guy" or "I disagree with this guy" around these forums. Very few times has reputation came or went for quality of a post.

You could say this one guy very strongly disagrees with you.

[ShtoormoVick]

^^+1

@kis12134, but if it matters to you, now you can feel a bit better

[kis12134]

Well, in the forums reputation really doesn't have any importance but if a member with -40 reputation makes a thread, the forum members would most likely think its another "stupid" thread which might be a very usefull thread and if a member with +40 reputation makes a "stupid" thread its most likely for people to go and read/watch his thread?

[ShtoormoVick]

I wouldn't be so sure.

You see, respected members of this forum pretty much have an idea about who's got a certain rep and why, and thus they pretty much have a perception of what a certain person might be writing down here.

But you're probably right, as far as it goes down to newcomers.

[CzaD]

You could say this one guy very strongly disagrees with you.

I know the forum would be so much better if people instead of open discussion just abused the rep system and +/- each other everyday and only provided "." as an explanation, just like this one guy.

[Table]

Well Czad, I agree. People hide behind anonymity to minus rep people instead of trying to counter their arguments. Reputation causes a bad forum dynamic. Newcomers have a lot more to lose than those with established rep, and it justs creates a bad atmosphere. The easiest answer isn't to change how repping works, but to remove it all together.

[Retia Adolf]

only provided "." as an explanation, just like this one guy.

Better off than me, mine is ****ed and I can't even see the fact that people give or remove rep let alone the comment. Not that I want to anyway, so far the comments have been bull****.

The easiest answer isn't to change how repping works, but to remove it all together.

I disagree with the idea of removing repping. It will reduce forum drama and drama is the mortar that holds communities together.

[Table]

There will always be this so called forum drama. Minus repping if anything makes people more reluctant to post, especially if they are new, as they would have the massive amounts of rep to act as a buffer. It would be very discouraging to new posters I would imagine, as from then on, people would pay less attention to their posts.

For instance, I just got minus repped in the Unit Balance thread with a "-" as an explanation. Presumably, this person just doesn't like my avatar or name.