Reputation Change

[tsptalk]

Regarding the misuse of user reputations, I have done some research and apparently I can change a setting that would permit members to only leave poitive rep (no negatives). This way someone's reputation will be based on how many positives they receive only.

We have had a problem with members handing out way too much negative reps which causes an endless reciprocation. Other boards that have used this positive only rep said it works out much better for everyone.

What do you think?

[rokid]

Tom,

Excellent idea! Keep it positive.:cheesy:

[FundSurfer]

I'd prefer just positive. I have recieved negative reputation marks on a couple of occasions for no good reason. I can deal with it either way.

Can you look up who has given out mostly negative and give them a stern warning?

[Show-me]

Yes keep it positive. If there is a problem of abuse "out them" and let our little community know who we are dealing with. It's easy to be pain when you have the luxury of anonymity. It does not seem fair to allow us to continue to interact with persons who you are finding to be devious.:(

[tsptalk]

There are people giving bad rep for no reason, and other who give it where it is probably due, but maybe to excess. With a community this big and of this nature (bull/bear) we are bound to have personality conflicts and it's not a surprise to see this type of activity.

Maybe this will help. If I do make the change, I will delete any past negative rep and set anyone with a negative rep rating to the starting / neutral point.

[Oldcoin]

Using only positive rep seems like a good idea. Things get pretty dicey around here as it is.

[tsptalk]

I will delete the negatives and the software will (should) recalculate the reps. So don't be surprised if your reputation level jumps, but please let me know if you see anything out of whack.

Thanks.

[tsptalk]

By the way, myself and the moderators still have the ability to leave negative reputation for inappropriate posts. We will only use it when necessary in an effort to protect the board and its members, particularly new members. Thanks.

[Wheels]

I know I am in the minority, but my opinion is reputation on this board is now worthless without the ability to post negative reps.

Dave
<><

[FUTURESTRADER]

how about weighting an individuals rating based on THEIR rep??..e.g. a person with a negative/lower rep has a lower weight to what they rate others...that might prove to be pretty enlightening...the value of one's opinion is rated.

[tsptalk]

That's the way it works now futurestrader, among other things - longevity, # posts, rep, etc.

Dave, I agree. The negative reps would work in a perfect world, but in the wrong hands it just became an under the table flame war with particular members bad rep'ing the same people over and over, with back and forth retaliation even though people didn't really know who left the bad rep.

Now you'll have people with either very high rep, high, med, or low rep - rarely negative. If posts are blantantly bad, the mods can step in and give the bad rep, hopefully without regard to any personality conflicts.

[Spaf]

In Retrospect:

Here is some initial information about the use of reputation as posted by Tom in March of 2006: http://www.tsptalk.com/mb/showthread.php?t=2666 post #1 and post #4.

The administrator was alerted to some potential misuse of reputation.
The allegations were investigated, and there were findings!
Research was conducted into alternate options.
The options were discussed and members were allowed to express their opinions.
A majority decision was made!

Thats what should have been done!

As presented in Tom's thread above. If a member doesn't progress their reputation won't either.

[Wheels]

If posts are blantantly bad, the mods can step in and give the bad rep

What if they are blatantly wrong, or blatantly foolish, or blatantly miss the point. You will only be giving bad reps for people mis-behaving. However it will do nothing to address the value, or lack thereof, of a person's post.

Dave
<><

[SkyPilot]

Does this reputation feature really serve all that relevant of a function anyway? I suspect that mostly it is ignored or misunderstood, and does not ultimately add enough value to really make it worth the effort it takes to strategize a way to make it fair or useful.

[mlk_man]

There's a song called "Love me today, hate me tomorrow" by Blue October. Can we have that play when you log into the message board? :p

Please, no "We are family" requests...........:blink:

[tsptalk]

Does this reputation feature really serve all that relevant of a function anyway? I suspect that mostly it is ignored or misunderstood, and does not ultimately add enough value to really make it worth the effort it takes to strategize a way to make it fair or useful.
I think so. I go to different message boards when I have questions about programming, webhosting, whatever, and it matters to me who is giving the answers to my questions. I'm more apt to listen to someone with higher rep. I'd think that would be especially relevant with financial related topics.

[tsptalk]

What if they are blatantly wrong, or blatantly foolish, or blatantly miss the point. You will only be giving bad reps for people mis-behaving. However it will do nothing to address the value, or lack thereof, of a person's post.
Foolish posts don't warrant bad rep. We see them all the time (see mlk_man's post above :D). No harm - no foul. Blatantly wrong on the other hand - not so good. I'd suggest hitting the "report post" link to help us out if you see one.

Posts that miss the point can be ignored. :)

[mlk_man]

Foolish post? I think some nice music would make everyone feel better while they browse the MB. How about "Mony, mony" by Billy Idol.

Do we need to start a poll? :p

[Wheels]

I think so. I go to different message boards when I have questions about programming, webhosting, whatever, and it matters to me who is giving the answers to my questions. I'm more apt to listen to someone with higher rep. I'd think that would be especially relevant with financial related topics.


Foolish posts don't warrant bad rep. We see them all the time (see mlk_man's post above :D). No harm - no foul. Blatantly wrong on the other hand - not so good. I'd suggest hitting the "report post" link to help us out if you see one.

Posts that miss the point can be ignored. :)

These are totally contradictory ideas. You want people to be able to come here and look at the reputation to help them decide who to listen to, but that person's reputation could be quite high despite repeated posts that are foolish, posts that miss the point, posts that are marginally wrong, posts that are incoherrent, posts that have any number of negative qualities, so long as they aren't mean spirited.

Dave
<><

[FundSurfer]

The key would then to be to give out a lot of reputation points to those that deserve them so that they by far out distance those that post dribble...

[Spaf]

Yes this talk does deal with contrary ideas. All have been well presented. At no time on this thread has anyone been penalized for what their position was, or how they felt!...............;) .................Spaf

[tsptalk]

These are totally contradictory ideas. You want people to be able to come here and look at the reputation to help them decide who to listen to, but that person's reputation could be quite high despite repeated posts that are foolish, posts that miss the point, posts that are marginally wrong, posts that are incoherrent, posts that have any number of negative qualities, so long as they aren't mean spirited.
I just don't think those types of posts warrant negative rep. What you are saying is that you want posts (or members) labeled as good or bad. I'm saying most, if not all, are good for one reaon or another, some just give us a little more and those are the ones who should be given higher rep.

To your end, I have been trying to give out more positive rep than I used to when I see a good and/or helpful post. If everyone consistantly did that we'll start to see members with lots of little green boxes (and I think they start changing to dark green at higher levels). New folks will be able to see more easily, who has higher rep without the stigma of a red box.

The posts you mention should not be given positive rep and if posts are offensive, mean spirited, or break the rules (like spam) the modertaors can give the negative rep.

Believe me Dave, I see your point. But it took too much time to deal with the negative reputation wars and the research that went into seeing who was giving it to whom, etc. I got this idea from other successful message boards who went thru the same thing and most of them feel this works out much better for everybody. The less negativety on the board the better.

[Wheels]

Once again we'll have to agree to disagree. It's not like I was trying to change your mind. You made a decision and that's the end of it. I was just expressing my opinion that the reputation feature on this board has been watered down and now has little value. I will no longer be using it.

Dave
<><

[tsptalk]

That's your choice and I appreciate your honesty and input. By the way, I believe you can turn off your rep in your profile options so others can't see it. I'll turn yours off for you. I think that would be the thing to do since you won't be giving any rep. If you change your mind, let me know.

[mlk_man]

If you can turn it off, what's the point of having it? Is anybody in the government really stupid enough to come here and jump right in trusting what others say? Don't answer that............I did get rid of my duck avatar.....:p still got the shotgun though. No wait, is that a .22 your suppose to use for ducks.........:p

I see no rules about giving reputation. Tom, you might have posted the purpose of giving reputation somewhere, but I'm not searching for it and I think most won't either.

When you adjusted peoples reputation to get rid of negative rep, I went from like 19 to I think 134. Now last I saw I'm at about 109. Who cares?

I've given you bad rep before based solely on your IFT. I do try to read all the posts on this MB and I might see one early on that I thought was bogus but I keep reading the other posts that perhaps that one person posted to also. I don't go back to the original post to give the bad rep. Are you kidding me? Who knew how that worked and who really cares.......

Everyone knows who thinks what of me. Do I deserve two squares? Some might say yes, others might say no. If this is becoming a popularity contest, let us know. I'll smile more and kiss more babes......I mean babies.......;)

[mlk_man]

Forgot, just call me "MOe"..........:D

[mlk_man]

That's your choice and I appreciate your honesty and input. By the way, I believe you can turn off your rep in your profile options so others can't see it. I'll turn yours off for you. I think that would be the thing to do since you won't be giving any rep. If you change your mind, let me know.


Couldn't find it Tom? You can turn mine off too.

Thanks!

[tsptalk]

Actually, it looks like I had it wrong. You have to do yourself in your > usercp> edit options. I'll test it out now.

[tsptalk]

Yup, it works.

Go to >usercp> edit options> Show My Reputation Level > remove the check mark

[Wheels]

Go to >usercp> edit options> Show My Reputation Level > remove the check mark

I am probably just dense but I can't find a line that says Show My Reputation Level under edit options or anywhere else.

BTW. While I was there I noticed that you had given me some rep and since taken it back. I guess that is something only mods and administrators can do.

[tsptalk]

I can't find a line that says Show My Reputation Level under edit options or anywhere else.

I think that is my fault dave. Does your reputation number show in your edit options page? If it doesn't, did it at one time? That may be what shut off when I tried to turn off your displayed rep. I can turn that back on, then you might be able to turn it off yourself. Try again.

[tsptalk]

If you can turn it off, what's the point of having it?
The dog never ate my straight A report cards. :D

[Spaf]

I think that is my fault dave. Does your reputation number show in your edit options page? If it doesn't, did it at one time? That may be what shut off when I tried to turn off your displayed rep. I can turn that back on, then you might be able to turn it off yourself. Try again.

I think we are seeing different things. I can't find a reputation feature in the CP edit options. I do find in user CP at the Latest Rep Recieved section a (^) icon on the right side that will close the Rep window. Points and icons will remain.

[mlk_man]

How about a little "Fire On The Mountain" by The Marshall Tucker Band? :D

[Wheels]

I can't find a reputation feature in the CP edit options. I do find in user CP at the Latest Rep Recieved section a (^) icon on the right side that will close the Rep window. Points and icons will remain.


Tom, this is what I see too. I can't find any other reference to reputation in the user cp. But I don't really care to spend anymore time on it. I don't need mine to be turned off to not participate myself.

I did not mean to be combative or to challenge your decision. I was trying to express my opinion on the matter, which I have apparently accomplished.

[tsptalk]

Now I'm just curious. I made another change.

Spaf (or anyone else), can you please try your usercp, edit options, and see if there is now an option to hide your rep? Thanks - please let me know what you find.

This is a monster program with so many features, all different for each type of member. It's difficult to keep track of what is set where.

[FundSurfer]

Under User CP > Edit Options > Show My Reputation Level.
____________________
Your current reputation level is displayed to other users whenever you post a message. If you would like to hide your reputation, disable this option.

You currently have xxx reputation points.
Check box Show My Reputation Level
___________________

So the option is there now.

[grandma]

Spaf (or anyone else), can you please try your usercp, edit options, and see if there is now an option to hide your rep? Thanks - please let me know what you find.

Clicking my UserCP opens the window that has the other menus on the left, and the received reps & accompanying comments listed in a box on the right. Nothing else to click regarding reputations.

[grandma]

Under User CP > Edit Options > Show My Reputation Level.
____________________
Your current reputation level is displayed to other users whenever you post a message. If you would like to hide your reputation, disable this option.

You currently have xxx reputation points.
Check box Show My Reputation Level
___________________

So the option is there now.

...oh ...so it is !!!!:D :o :p :cheesy:

[Show-me]

It worked for me.



Now I'm just curious. I made another change.

Spaf (or anyone else), can you please try your usercp, edit options, and see if there is now an option to hide your rep? Thanks - please let me know what you find.

This is a monster program with so many features, all different for each type of member. It's difficult to keep track of what is set where.

[EW_ret]

Tom,

"Show My Reputation" is now visible in User CP/Edit Options. Its at the top under Login & Privacy.

[tsptalk]

Thanks everyone!