Trial Basis: Reputation System - Please read and comment

[Mythor]

One of the functions vBulletin has is enabling a user reputation system, which lets people give positive or negative feedback on individual posts people make, to indicate they find a post useful... or not so much.
Over time, people who get a lot of "positive" reputation hits accrue more reputation points, which other members can see represented visually and be able to tell that this person is generally coming up with good information or useful replies to questions, etc.

I have decided - on a trial basis - to enable this system on MOSH.

The idea behind enabling this is so that people will be able to spot the "wheat from the chaff" when it comes to forum posts, as well as give a little bit of "bling" to the information beside of each post.

Initially people will only be able to give "positive" reputation. The reason for this is that one of the big pitfalls of a system like this is the potential for people to give "negative" reputation to people they just don't like. This has been the main issue keeping me from enabling it thus far.
If or when negative reputation is enabled, it will only be for people above a certain member level. Check my post - New membership system - for the details on what the levels are and let me know which you think it would be appropriate to allow the ability to give negative feedback. "All of them" is a valid suggestion.

Whilst this system is being added on a trial basis, I would prefer it if people didn't give "test" type reputation. If you want to see how it works, go find a post you really like and give that person some rep!

Ordinarily this system would just display a small green blip to represent someone's reputation, but I went ahead and got the "spiffier" version, so things look a little nicer. During the trial, the blips may change in value, depending on how quickly people are getting the spiffier blips and they may also reset entirely, if things go haywire.
If the trial is successful, I may look into getting some better blip images, too.

Don't want to use the reputation system? You can disable it in your User CP, Profile Options. (Or enable it, if it was disabled for some reason and you don't want it to be.) This means that while people will still be able to give you positive OR negative reputation, nobody will be able to see it on your profile.

Note also that moderators can see who has left reputation for people. So we can tell if someone is abusing the system!

Rather than debate it beforehand, I thought I'd just enable it and allow people to see it for themselves and decide whether it's something they think is worth keeping on the board. Please, give it a chance and see how you like it.

In order to give reputation, find the post you think is "cool" and click the little "Scales" below the person's avatar and information. You should be able to work it out from there, but let me know if you can't!
I'll also see about getting a better icon for it, because the scales are kinda lame.

What would you give reputation for?
Useful posts. e.g. My Gala thread or Alisso's reviews thread or specific reviews in that thread.

The "Reputation Power" you'll see beside people's posts is a representation of how much "weight" that person has when giving reputation points. It is based on a couple of factors: number of posts, join date and the person's own reputation score. The more posts you've made, the longer you've been a member and the more positive reputation you receive, the greater the weight with which the system will consider your opinion.
Most people will probably only start with a power of 1 or 2, or that is the idea at any rate.

You can only give out 10 reputation ratings a day and you must rep at least 5 people before you can rep someone again, so bear that in mind.

If the system is either not used, not liked or generally abused, it will go away again.

If for some reason it won't let you leave reputation for people, please let me know and I will look into it.

Questions? Comments?

[susanjacobs]

Meh. It could be a good thing, but really reputation is earned through great posts. I have been on here long enough to know whose opinion I trust and people I know to ignore. I could see where this might help new people get an idea of what we long-term users already know.

I doubt that I would use it.

[Mythor]

Originally Posted by susanjacobs

I could see where this might help new people get an idea of what we long-term users already know.

That's the main idea, yes. Newbies don't know the difference between a jackass with a high post count and a useful person with a low one.
Of course, we'd need some more newbies for it to matter... but I wanted to try it anyway.

[Mythor]

Some changes/updates:
- You may now leave negative reputation, if you'd like to do so. Bear in mind that it is supposed to be used on posts you find to be negative contributions. You don't have to leave a comment, but I can see if you're just bad rep'ing aimlessly.
Those people in the lowest member group cannot use negative reputation, though. See New membership system to work out who that applies to.

- You can see which posts someone has left you reputation for in your User CP, including what they wrote and for which post you received rep, as well as your current total reputation points in numerical form.

- You can check who you have left reputation for in your User CP as well.

- Other people can see what posts you have been given reputation for in your Member Profile. Example: My profile, as I have a +rep from nahemah.

It is possible to show who has given reputation to whom in these locations, if people think it would be more conducive to honest rep-giving.

Still disinterested?

[nahemah]

Originally Posted by Mythor

- Other people can see what posts you have been given reputation for in your Member Profile. Example: My profile, as I have a +rep from nahemah.

What can I say? I just had to try it out. New things to click - whee!

(Plus it was actually a helpful post)

[susanjacobs]

Originally Posted by Mythor

That's the main idea, yes. Newbies don't know the difference between a jackass with a high post count and a useful person with a low one.
Of course, we'd need some more newbies for it to matter... but I wanted to try it anyway.

I am an old school, Usenet poster. Trial by flaming for newbies -- if you ever posted on Usenet, you know what it was like. Lurk... then lurk some more... get a real feel of the place. Then if the planets align just right, your first post wouldn't have you flamed to a crisp. Man, I sound like those parents who say, "Well, I was bullied as a kid and I turned out alright."

So this is where my attitude comes from. I will try to remember to reward posters who give good information, but I am not sure I will remember.

[Mythor]

Yes, I remember those days. Including when MOSH was like that.
Been trying to make the forum friendlier, not less friendly. Idiots still get pointed and laughed at mostly.

I'm not really expecting this to work or even be used at all, but I wanted to try enabling it, to see if anyone does want to use it. I can always turn it off again and enable some other toy!

[unfrufru]

Originally Posted by Mythor

That's the main idea, yes. Newbies don't know the difference between a jackass with a high post count and a useful person with a low one.
Of course, we'd need some more newbies for it to matter... but I wanted to try it anyway.

who you calling a jackass???

i'm a tad confused. I understand the clicking on the scales thing but i still don't know how it is calculated.

for example, you and i have the same reputation power of 9 but you have a different amount of blobs to myself. how does this work? (not sulking, just wanna know)

[Mythor]

I explained that in the first post!
"Power" means how many points you give to someone by rating one of their posts. So you and I add or subtract 9 points from people's reputations when we rate them, whereas susanjacobs only adds or subtracts 2, for example. That's due to the 2001 join date plus obscene number of posts.
(Note: You don't lose any points or power by rating a post.)

The green blobs are how many reputation points you have. I have 2 because I have 13 points in total - the default 10 points + 3 from getting +rep from nahemah. You have 1 blob because you're still on the starting 10 points. Because nobody likes you enough to +rep.
Alisso is up to 3 blobs with 23 points, as she's got +rep 3 times, 2 for one comfest review, 1 for a seperate review.

Does it make sense now?

[unfrufru]

yup makes total sense now.