Forum User Reputation System

[Anna]

Now I'm dizzy.

I thought it was just me.

For example if member A includes a negative comment aimed at member B in a Post, Member B can if he so wishes leave a comment and vote of disapproval of member A. Member C can upon seeing the mean-spirited post also leave a comment and vote for member A. So without stirring the pot on-line the disagreement is taken off-line. Member A logs into his CP and sees that members A and C have both left him negative feedback on his post.

Wouldn't that leave member A seething and wanting to get back at members B and C (since he's being a jerk) by voting against them? And now B and C will think that's unfair because they don't think they did anything wrong and A started it anyway. Although B and C can now conspire and approve each other to nullify A's votes....

I thought politics is banned in this forum??

For those like me who didn't even know this feature existed, it doesn't matter if it continues to exist or not. Those who are bothered by it can probably just learn to ignore it. Besides, when we like a post(er), we are normally pretty open with expressing our approval in the same thread anyway.

[Bruce Cohen]

Hey Mark,

This whole thing is getting to a point where it could really become ugly. I always considered ALL the members part of my extended family and have no intention of playing "Rat Out The Next Guy/Gal" without identifying myself.

I think its unfair to the entire membership, the person being beaten up on and the one whose doing the ratting. It's akin to getting anonymous email with a nasty message.

I feel that if I have something "unpleasant" to say to someone, the only honorable way is to tell that person to his/her face (using my name, in this case). The same works in reverse, I'd like to know why I pissed off someone and what I can do to "fix" it, and not hide behind a cloak of a unsigned rating.

I mean, what may have started with good intent is now becoming something on a grammar school level and not fit for adults.

Realizing we do need some "rules" to keep us on an even keel, I for one, feel that we are instituting too many restrictions for us "grown-ups.

Bruce

[crokett]

I never look at ratings. I've no idea if mine is positive or negative and don't much care. Way too much emphasis is placed on them. If I don't like what someone posts I will either PM or post to tell him/her and I expect the same courtesy. Also, while I consider a good number of members here friends, I've only ever met one of you so it doesn't bother me at all if a few of you don't hold me in high regard. You can't be liked by everybody.

[SARGE..g-47]

Well.. I just came up to escape the saw-dust that's been floating in my shop all afternoon. Looks like a lot of water ran under the bridge since I left. And it appears that not all that water was clean but had a few traces of toxics. With that said.. I think I will opt to go back as breathing the floating saw-dust particles seems to be a better option than toxic fumes. I will stand by what I said though...

If the function is dropped... Great! If not... I will just ignore as I see it as a faulty gauge that can be mis-read as already evidenced.

Where's my dust-mask?

Ya'll have a great evening as I personally really don't see the subject as major road construction.... just a slight bump in the road that can be negotiated easily without upsetting the entire apple cart!

Regards to All....

[Black wallnut]

I have a correction. LOML pointed it out to me. Her reputation marks are also anon. and I was wrong about users being able to choose the option to view or not. I as Admin can look them up and there is plenty of info that I can see when I do. Who gave the feedback, what the feedback was and the exact post that the feedback was given for. I have looked at a bunch of them. In all honesty it was John Hunter's low rep power that started me down this road, without even him posting about it. Of all the ones I looked at and traced back to the post that generated the reputation points I could, as a neutral third party could see the point that the ANON poster responded to. IMHO the system has not been abused.

The simple fact that many members were not even aware of the feature and therefore have not been using it is the only justification I can find for John's low rep power. Other than the one post that he mentioned I have never read any from him that were not positive. John seems to have a style like Monte, quietly giving praise to other posters. I am not saying that I agree with the ANON critic but I do see his point.

Notice that several Moderators do not put any stock in the validity of User Reputations. Personally only having received good points I do not see the harm in it remaining as a tool. There are still a number of other members that do use this feature.

[radhak]

Not having paid any attention to this before, I was blissfully unaware. Now I see that one of my innocuous posts has had a 'somewhat negative' reputation. I see that my reputation is 8 points, so assuming Mark has got the 10 default points right, looks like somebody took away 2 of my points. Gimme them back !


I am somehow sure somebody gave that by mistake, looking at the content of my post : http://www.bt3central.com/showpost.p...7&postcount=10.

Of course I can't see whodunnit...

[TheRic]

Not having paid any attention to this before, I was blissfully unaware. Now I see that one of my innocuous posts has had a 'somewhat negative' reputation. I see that my reputation is 8 points, so assuming Mark has got the 10 default points right, looks like somebody took away 2 of my points. Gimme them back !


I am somehow sure somebody gave that by mistake, looking at the content of my post : http://www.bt3central.com/showpost.p...7&postcount=10.

Of course I can't see whodunnit...

If you got a negative on that post, then I would think they made a mistake or someone is out to get you. I can't even begin to think how someone took that negatively.

[billwmeyer]

I really didn't care if this feature was eliminated or kept, but then I looked at my reputation and found out my reputation was increased in a Prayer request in a thread by Monte.

As of now I am sad, and I would like to see the feature stay on.

Bill

[LCHIEN]

my comment is that the REp points are hardly used on this forum and therefore represent really nothing. It's easy to accidentally hit some wrong button and leave the wrong rating anyway with no way to correct it.
I myself once asked people (2-3 years ago) to give me rep points i f they liked my answers. I have given some pretty sound technical advice (I hope) and receive positive comments from many readers but since I've left 8800 posts and conservatively estimating each is read 20 times, less than 60 rep points means that only .03% of post readers leave rep points even after being asked. And my last rep point was over a year ago.
So pretty much it amounts to nothing, statistically insignificant, just ignore it.

[John Hunter]

Folks I am moving a number of posts from the Rules II topic to this new topic. I see this as being a different topic altogether.

FWIW Sam is the only person that can turn the reputation feature on and off.

Sorry, I did not mean to hijack the thread.

[stormdog74]

Wow, I just finished reading through all of this thread (along with the one it came from). John, I am not surprised you got a negative rep point as your post involved religion, and an attack on one as well. Just think what would have happened had you posted something about an atrocity committed by a Christian or another more "popular" religion (and there have been plenty). As this forum, thanks to Sam, is supposed to be open and welcome to all, just think how someone who practices Islam would feel at seeing that?

As to the rep points, I too did not know they existed - apparently I have 19, although maybe that will go down with this post! I don't see it as a big deal either way. I am a college professor and having read the comments on "Rate My Professor" a negative rep point is nothing.

I say we leave it up to Sam - it is his house and we agree to play by his rules or we can "go home".

[stormdog74]

my comment is that the REp points are hardly used on this forum and therefore represent really nothing. It's easy to accidentally hit some wrong button and leave the wrong rating anyway with no way to correct it.
I myself once asked people (2-3 years ago) to give me rep points i f they liked my answers. I have given some pretty sound technical advice (I hope) and receive positive comments from many readers but since I've left 8800 posts and conservatively estimating each is read 20 times, less than 60 rep points means that only .03% of post readers leave rep points even after being asked. And my last rep point was over a year ago.
So pretty much it amounts to nothing, statistically insignificant, just ignore it.

Okay, now I am giving rep points - I just left my first for Loring as he has been so helpful to so many of us. So, when he gets to a certain number of points can he trade them in for a decoder ring or x-ray glasses?!

[ryan.s]

My understanding was that the rep points was a standard feature of the forum software that was not being utilized. See the thread from last March.

"(seriously tho', it really doesn't mean anything, it's a Vbulletin feature that we don't have setup for anything)"

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=28799

[leehljp]

Folks I am moving a number of posts from the Rules II topic to this new topic. I see this as being a different topic altogether.

FWIW Sam is the only person that can turn the reputation feature on and off.

I AM GLAD to see this! I thought I was losing my marbles because I thought this was on a different thread the last time I saw it. Honestly, I was wondering what was going on in my mind! And I have had a couple of full days with a co-worker that talks in such nebulous terms and words that could drive inert gas into a volatile state.

[jking]

Generally, the rep feature is ignored on this site. For a long time, I thought it had been disabled. I've been around a number of other forum sites & one thing I've picked up on is that even shen used, the rep points don't really mean much. They might be helpful to a new user, but, stick around a while and read posts & responses. Very soon, you will figure out whose opinions are held in high regard.