Terez
06-06-2008, 08:09 PM
I suppose it's not a big deal if no one cares how we do the reputation system here at our shiny new home, but I thought I'd give a general breakdown of how it works and why I like it, and those who have experience with boards that use it can chip in as well, of course (Muttley, WH, and Brood are 3 that I know of who are familiar with it). It's not that much different, as far as importance goes, from your title or your post count. Your title reflects the community's (Tam's) qualitative appreciation for your participation here. Your post count is just a quantitative measure of your participation here. Reputation is a qualitative and quantitative measure of various individuals' appreciation for specific posts that you make.
Here's how it works, when there are no restrictions on it (Tam has some communist restrictions on it at the moment, but he might possibly be swayed):
In each post, there is an icon of balance scales in the top right corner, near the link for the individual post. Younglings currently can't see it, because rep is currently disabled for Younglings (you can receive, but not give). When you click on it, normally you would get the option to approve or disapprove of the post (there is also currently a communist restriction on disapproving). Whichever option you pick, there is a space where you can add a comment to go with your reputation gift (this part is the most fun, imo). Your comments are anonymous, but in my experience, most people sign their rep comments, because you want the person to know that it was you that appreciated their post, of course, and why, without interrupting the thread (though sometimes people interrupt the thread anyway to announce that they gave rep to a person, and that's okay too. Sometimes.)
The amount of rep that you can give someone is your rep power. Your rep power is determined by several variables, including your post count, join date, and total reputation points. Your total reputation points is the sum of all of the reputation you've received on the board, ever. You might have a total of 10,000 reputation points, and a rep power of 100 (that's a normal ratio, with normal settings, after the ball gets rolling with the system), which means that you add 100 to a poster's total reputation points when you give them rep (and by extension, possibly a point or two to their rep power). Your negative (disapprove) rep power is only half your rep power, though (for obvious reasons), so it would subtract 50 points from the poster's total reputation if you had a rep power of 100. If the restrictions were removed, your total reputation points and your rep power would be displayed in your posts with your post count and join date.
You can't just rep the same two or three people over and over again. I think Tam has it set really high right now - where you have to rep about 10 different people before you can rep the same person again. I think that's too high - it's lower at my other board (4 or 5 I think) and they have far more members there. I think 4 or 5 would be good for Theoryland...I don't think anyone here is really lame enough that they would just rep the same 4 or 5 people over and over again. That just makes the whole thing boring. Also, you can only give out so much reputation in a 24-hour period. At my other board, that's set I think to 10 or 15 times a day. I think 10 would be a good limit for Theoryland, since we're smaller - perhaps a bit lower, but not too much. It's rare anyone will max out that total.
In my experience, neg rep is really rare. The reason for that is no one wants to start a neg-rep war...even uberbitches like me. In general, it's used by more senior members with high rep powers to mark out trolls. One or two bad senior members who abuse it won't make much difference, but when you've got a troll, it's rather easy for the senior members to band together and mark the person with neg rep. I've never seen it done frivolously, and my experience with rep comes from a forum where people are in general much less...scrupulous...than we are here at Theoryland. :) Neg rep generally only used once in a blue moon, when someone says something particularly bad. Trolls and annoying noobs who will never fit in here can't do any damage to anyone's reputation, because they don't have any rep power.
This is what my User CP page looks like at the board where we use rep:
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i111/Terez27/Picture2-1.png
As you can see, this is about one week's worth of reputation messages. You can also see that most people sign their comments (I think only one person didn't - the rooster emote is a signature). None of the Theoryland cross-overs are on there, so since most of you guys don't know these people, I don't mind displaying what they wrote. The links go directly to the post where the rep was given, so I can see exactly what they're repping me for, if it's not clear. Some of the rep is from serious discussion, and some of it is from frivolous discussion. All of it is positive rep - that's what the little green squares to the left indicate. If it was neg rep, it would be red, and if it was neutral rep (rep from a person with no rep power) it would be a bluish color.
So, in conclusion - as I said before, it's not any more...serious...than your post count or your title. In other words, somewhat significant, but only somewhat. But post count I think is the most trivial of the three, and titles are stagnant, especially for those that have reached the top already and have nowhere left to go. I think that the rep system is a lot of fun. It's not serious, but it's more interesting than beefing up your post count, and more of a daily interactive thing than trying to get raised. I know a lot of you guys are going to say it's stupid just because I'm saying it's not. :p That's okay, too...but I think that all of you (even my enemies!) would have fun with this, after we got used to it.
The point of it, I think, is that it actually helps maintain a positive atmosphere on a message board. Rep messages can be serious morale boosts, and even if there are some people who never rep you, there will be some people that do, and rep makes people happy. It's a bit frustrating for a noob trying to get noticed, but it's also quality control for noobs, and when noobs do get noticed with rep, it encourages them to participate even more - more so than a raising far on the horizon would encourage them (though of course that incentive plays its part as well).
So, I'm hoping that Tam will see the possible value of the rep system, and I'm hoping that everyone here will enjoy it. :)
Here's how it works, when there are no restrictions on it (Tam has some communist restrictions on it at the moment, but he might possibly be swayed):
In each post, there is an icon of balance scales in the top right corner, near the link for the individual post. Younglings currently can't see it, because rep is currently disabled for Younglings (you can receive, but not give). When you click on it, normally you would get the option to approve or disapprove of the post (there is also currently a communist restriction on disapproving). Whichever option you pick, there is a space where you can add a comment to go with your reputation gift (this part is the most fun, imo). Your comments are anonymous, but in my experience, most people sign their rep comments, because you want the person to know that it was you that appreciated their post, of course, and why, without interrupting the thread (though sometimes people interrupt the thread anyway to announce that they gave rep to a person, and that's okay too. Sometimes.)
The amount of rep that you can give someone is your rep power. Your rep power is determined by several variables, including your post count, join date, and total reputation points. Your total reputation points is the sum of all of the reputation you've received on the board, ever. You might have a total of 10,000 reputation points, and a rep power of 100 (that's a normal ratio, with normal settings, after the ball gets rolling with the system), which means that you add 100 to a poster's total reputation points when you give them rep (and by extension, possibly a point or two to their rep power). Your negative (disapprove) rep power is only half your rep power, though (for obvious reasons), so it would subtract 50 points from the poster's total reputation if you had a rep power of 100. If the restrictions were removed, your total reputation points and your rep power would be displayed in your posts with your post count and join date.
You can't just rep the same two or three people over and over again. I think Tam has it set really high right now - where you have to rep about 10 different people before you can rep the same person again. I think that's too high - it's lower at my other board (4 or 5 I think) and they have far more members there. I think 4 or 5 would be good for Theoryland...I don't think anyone here is really lame enough that they would just rep the same 4 or 5 people over and over again. That just makes the whole thing boring. Also, you can only give out so much reputation in a 24-hour period. At my other board, that's set I think to 10 or 15 times a day. I think 10 would be a good limit for Theoryland, since we're smaller - perhaps a bit lower, but not too much. It's rare anyone will max out that total.
In my experience, neg rep is really rare. The reason for that is no one wants to start a neg-rep war...even uberbitches like me. In general, it's used by more senior members with high rep powers to mark out trolls. One or two bad senior members who abuse it won't make much difference, but when you've got a troll, it's rather easy for the senior members to band together and mark the person with neg rep. I've never seen it done frivolously, and my experience with rep comes from a forum where people are in general much less...scrupulous...than we are here at Theoryland. :) Neg rep generally only used once in a blue moon, when someone says something particularly bad. Trolls and annoying noobs who will never fit in here can't do any damage to anyone's reputation, because they don't have any rep power.
This is what my User CP page looks like at the board where we use rep:
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i111/Terez27/Picture2-1.png
As you can see, this is about one week's worth of reputation messages. You can also see that most people sign their comments (I think only one person didn't - the rooster emote is a signature). None of the Theoryland cross-overs are on there, so since most of you guys don't know these people, I don't mind displaying what they wrote. The links go directly to the post where the rep was given, so I can see exactly what they're repping me for, if it's not clear. Some of the rep is from serious discussion, and some of it is from frivolous discussion. All of it is positive rep - that's what the little green squares to the left indicate. If it was neg rep, it would be red, and if it was neutral rep (rep from a person with no rep power) it would be a bluish color.
So, in conclusion - as I said before, it's not any more...serious...than your post count or your title. In other words, somewhat significant, but only somewhat. But post count I think is the most trivial of the three, and titles are stagnant, especially for those that have reached the top already and have nowhere left to go. I think that the rep system is a lot of fun. It's not serious, but it's more interesting than beefing up your post count, and more of a daily interactive thing than trying to get raised. I know a lot of you guys are going to say it's stupid just because I'm saying it's not. :p That's okay, too...but I think that all of you (even my enemies!) would have fun with this, after we got used to it.
The point of it, I think, is that it actually helps maintain a positive atmosphere on a message board. Rep messages can be serious morale boosts, and even if there are some people who never rep you, there will be some people that do, and rep makes people happy. It's a bit frustrating for a noob trying to get noticed, but it's also quality control for noobs, and when noobs do get noticed with rep, it encourages them to participate even more - more so than a raising far on the horizon would encourage them (though of course that incentive plays its part as well).
So, I'm hoping that Tam will see the possible value of the rep system, and I'm hoping that everyone here will enjoy it. :)