The Reputation System

[Seshomaru]

I get the feeling that this will be a bit controversial because I know that people like to be able to 'rate' a user's worth on the forum through positive or negative reputation. However, I feel this system isn't being used properly, or as intended, and actually causes a lot of issues. I'll list down the problems I see with it now, and then offer some possible solutions that I feel would mend the issues we have with it. This will be a bit lengthy, but please read through it all before criticising.


Problems with the System:

• People tend to use it for revenge or 'pay back' if another user down-reps them or disagrees with their opinion on the forum.
  This just creates unnecessary conflict and is unfair. If we want to down-rep someone for legitimate reasons, we might refrain from doing so at the risk of the user getting butthurt and returning the negative rep without proper reason.
• Due to things like what was mentioned above, the overall points system becomes inaccurate. What's the point of having it if it isn't going to be an accurate representation of how members of the forum view the user's content?
• Why should members be allowed to publicly put someone down in this way? This is the first forum I have visited where users can actually put down one another as a part of the system. In all other places I have visited, putting down a user, in any way, is discouraged. There's a reason that even Facebook doesn't have a dislike button. It is my belief that it would be nicer if members could only express encouragement or positivity to other members, rather than negativity. If they have nothing nice to express, they keep it to themselves! This is my main point.
• Members tend to use it as their own way of moderation, but shouldn't that be up to the Staff? Members should not have to be rating users this way, especially when they aren't really fit to be the ones judging behaviour on the forum; otherwise they wouldn't be in this usergroup. If members want to help out the forum, they can already report posts.

Overall, I feel it causes unnecessary tension and isn't something we need nor something we should be in control of.


Now, for a solution!

Of course, the obvious way to fix it would be to just completely get rid of it, but there are some alternatives.

• Remove the ability to place a negative vote, but neutrals can still stay. This basically limits the possible impact it can have on a user to either, "you're a great member!" or "idk, you're a bit if-y sometimes."
• The identity of a member who leaves a rating on a user's profile is hidden (or can choose to have it be anonymous). The issue with this is that anyone could say something nasty and get away with it, but at least it would allow some people to give a fair rating without fear of being attacked by the user.
• This would be a complete overhaul, but why not move from judging the user, to actually judging their posts. This links in with another suggestion I made, but why don't we just allow users to be able to thank or upvote individual posts? Some have argued that this could be abused, but if a rule is simply made against thank-spamming, I'm sure it wouldn't become a large issue.

So there's my thoughts and my suggestions.
I want to ask the community to give me some feedback on this and address any issues or amendments that could be made with what I have said.

This is something I feel very strongly about, so I ask you to remain respectful when discussing it. I understand some people may feel differently than I do, but I ask that you debate with reason; not with feelings.

[Inuyasha]

I'm going to agree with this, we've both been saying this since we joined.

The amount of people who can handle receiving a negative rep without giving one back right away can be counted with the fingers of one hand -- that pretty much proves that people can't handle the system. It's doing more harm than good, to be honest.

[Isn't It A Pity?]

I agree with you. The forums would be a better place if the rep system was removed.

[Tally]

Agreed, although it's a shame people even feel the need to get revenge in response to a negative rep.. I daresay these people would find some other way to wedge their payback in if they really wanted to, but I think disallowing negative reputations and allowing neutrals may help.

On other forums I frequent, there are often functions allowing members to 'Like' or '+1' a post, whereas the 'Dislike' or '-1' options are disabled. It does seem to work very well, including on my own forum, as it removes the temptation to abuse the system, for a start.

[[TNT™] SwagMasterD]

This would be nice, as some of my neg rep is noobs that were spamming the forum, so I think that this would help a great deal.

[Toxic Waste9583]

I agree with your ideas.^^

[troll2]

its funny how newbies come and complain without knowing the complete story , on first day the forum was released, ppl had able the function to give reps by posts, and link the rep with the thread,reply the user was rep,as usual un mature members abuse form that, and im talking about positives and negatives, some users at few days had 5 or more pos reps form same user, in fact negative was less abuse than positive, another fact was that most of the reps ppl had came from that function instead of direct rep like we have now, so before complaining about something, you should had the facts established and complete.

Not everything is green, so negatives reps have a need in this forum , now its huge hypocrisy of u came and complain about how neg reps are abused when u used the system for personal problems instead of general issues

just a few examples of how u use rep system, what its the opposite of what ur complaning and suggesting:




alsop look at all your pos reps, not one, none are form making something good to forum, so again u stand for somethinf and u do the opposite.

thisis how u used the rep system, also u keep farming rep as most of the users, getting pos reps because u like anime, have nothing to do wit forum, .

If ppl dont like negatives, well behave. thats all and respect others forum readers.


Negatives have a function , and they work on forum, so your suggestion is useless, as i put the facts of first days on forum , if u dont beleve me u can ask a mod or a veteran,

the reputation system was restrict because ppl abuse positive reps,

and farm pos reps its the current real problem, there are ppl whit more reps than admins or staffs, there are ppl asking to rep me bak on reps, there are ppl giving to every new meber a pos rep wating to get a pos rep back,

the admins have choosen what they let or not, u cant came here and tell them in others forum ,. we are not other forum, BEO2 forums dont need to copy external forums, if u dont like rep system then dont use it

Reputation system its ok, theres no need to remove negatives, in fact negatives are the less abused, and are only abused form fakers and spam accounts, so NOT SUPPORTED,

also all members abuse rep and use rep as a PM way, or joke wit reps, so if ppl dont use propriety the system, u cant say if work or not

[Inuyasha]

Regarding positive reputation farming and +1-for-+1 cases... that's against the rules already, and you can report it to have those taken down.

[This Is Fun]

I agree with you! I have had some problems with the reputation system before, and I made a thread, but the thread ended up with spam of all the haters on the forum, so I had to delete it.

(10-26-2014 12:47 PM)Seshomaru Wrote:  Now, for a solution!

A suggestion I can think of is; The mods and the Donkins should be the only ones to be able to use the reputation system. Now I know people might disagree with me on this, and say that even the mods "might" misuse the reputation system, but hey, why would they do that? At least it will be muuuuuch better than it is right now, right?

(10-26-2014 03:53 PM)Gothic Demon Wrote:  I agree with you. The forums would be a better place if the rep system was removed.

Funny how someone who begs (used to?) for rep, but then gives you a negative rep for telling them not to beg, can say something like that..


Anyway, I agree with you, but I don't think the Donkins will do anything now.. Think their best answer will be "It's too late now"

[Mageg]

Hey guys, I've had a few reports on this thread, more than I expected.
There is nothing about this thread that is inappropriate, Seshomaru has put in the effort to create
a very well constructed suggestion while bringing up her points to support it.

Suggestions are a way for everyone to have their say and by no means is there anything wrong
with this thread, it's great to see threads like this where it's evident the suggester is passionate
about what they'd like to achieve.

All the best, good luck