Reputation System

[Mike]

Hi All - I've enabled the reputation system on the forum. It's basically a way for people to give rep points to members for making good posts or dinging them if they give bad advice/info. You need at least 50 posts before you can "give rep" though. Sorry to those members with less than 50 posts, but this restriction is to prevent trolls from wreaking havoc with the system.

Let's see how it goes, but if it turns out that we don't like it we can always disable it. I'm hoping that it'll help others know when they're getting advice from someone who has a positive reputation here. Maybe they will be more likely to take someone's advice if they have a good reputation? Not sure how it will work out, but let's try it.

This will only work if we are all honest while using it. Don't just give out positive rep to your friends. If you come across a really good and helpful post, then by all means throw them some rep. Please Note: If anyone is caught abusing the system you could wind up losing your account.

Only moderators can see who has left reputation for someone else. So if you leave a comment the original poster will not see your comment.

How to use it:
1. When you come across a post you want to give positive or negative rep to, look on the left side of the post, under the user's name, near the online status indicator and you'll see
2. Click that and a small window opens letting you give positive or negative points, along with comments. Only moderators can see who has left comments. I think your rating will give the poster + or - 1 point each time you do this.
3. That's all there is to it.

To view your rep:
1. Click the on one of your own posts to see how many points you have.

I believe that for every 25 rep points you get another green box. Also, it looks like we all have to start at square one with rep points. We all have 1 green box and I gave everyone 10 rep points to start with.

This is more like an experiment at this point. If it goes horribly wrong we'll take it down. But let's try it out.

Thanks for reading,
Mike

[Alessa]

Ok... I just read it. lol... I was clicking on other people's reps and I didnt know it was meant to be reflected on the "individual" post they just made... now I know better

it will be interesting to see what happens

[Blub]

Originally Posted by alessa1235

Ok... I just read it. lol... I was clicking on other people's reps and I didnt know it was meant to be reflected on the "individual" post they just made... now I know better

it will be interesting to see what happens

Same here... Oops.

[Darlene]

Good idea...I'm interested to see how this works.

[peacemaker92]

That's cool. I'll try it! Thanks Mike!

[luna]

Systems like this have a high potential for abuse, but we've got a decent group of people from what I've seen, so I think that shouldn't be too much of a problem. It might be fun to watch, and could turn out to be very helpful for newbies who show up and don't know whose advice to listen to (some people provide well-meaning but misinformed advice...we'll get them all eventually!).

[Devon]

Originally Posted by luna

Systems like this have a high potential for abuse, but we've got a decent group of people from what I've seen, so I think that shouldn't be too much of a problem. It might be fun to watch, and could turn out to be very helpful for newbies who show up and don't know whose advice to listen to (some people provide well-meaning but misinformed advice...we'll get them all eventually!).

My only objection is that to the people who this will be most helpful to (newbies), it isn't immediately obvious in any random post what the "little green squares" mean under someone's avatar. Is there any way to put a tiny blurb, or mouseover, or something-- that will make it apparent to new users what "reputation" means on FL?

I think it's a great idea otherwise, interested to see what comes of it.

[Blub]

Originally Posted by Devon

My only objection is that to the people who this will be most helpful to (newbies), it isn't immediately obvious in any random post what the "little green squares" mean under someone's avatar. Is there any way to put a tiny blurb, or mouseover, or something-- that will make it apparent to new users what "reputation" means on FL?

I think it's a great idea otherwise, interested to see what comes of it.

If you hover your mouse over one of the squares it says 'HatchetHaven is on a distinguished road'... I predict as yo start to get a lot of reputation the squares will turn yellow then red. They have a similar system on the planted tank forum and they are red and yellow as well.

[Lucy]

I like the idea, but I've noticed you can't give positive points to the same people, it gives the message that I must spread some rep points around before giving more to a certain person again.

I guess this is done so not 1 person can jack up another's rep points
but in a way it punishes people who consistantly give good information.

[Devon]

Originally Posted by HatchetHaven

If you hover your mouse over one of the squares it says 'HatchetHaven is on a distinguished road'... I predict as yo start to get a lot of reputation the squares will turn yellow then red. They have a similar system on the planted tank forum and they are red and yellow as well.

Yeah I noticed that too, Hatchet, but I'm not sure that it would mean anything to someone that isn't already familiar with the rep system... I mean, if I were brand new to the forum, and I saw that you're "on a distinguished road," I would not have the foggiest idea what that was supposed to mean.

[luna]

I'll agree that it isn't immediately obvious what it means. I hovered over it and then went looking for this topic (I knew one would be here, Mike always makes a topic when something new is added).

If it had a title (maybe one that linked to this topic when clicked), and the hover text explained what the colors mean, I think it would be a little more obvious and helpful.

[freshwaterguy]

+Thumbs Up+

very good idea Mike most welcome, a good way to see who are respected members as sometimes the decisions we make are life and death.

[Devon]

Originally Posted by luna

If it had a title (maybe one that linked to this topic when clicked), and the hover text explained what the colors mean, I think it would be a little more obvious and helpful.

I agree, seems if it had "Reputation" or something as a title above the icons, it would be more immediately obvious to newbies what this feature means.

[nitz]

I agree with everything said above but think that you should be able to see how many rep points someone has when you mouse-over the green box. This would be helpful since, if it's what Mike said and you only get another green box for every 100 rep points, how would you be able to tell the difference between someone with 95 rep points (lots of positive rep) and someone with 5 rep points (actually received negative rep)? Of course, you could lower the interval initially for the number of rep points to get to the next level to something similar to the stars for how many posts you have.

[Coryd55]

I really like the rep things on forums. I doubt that we will have people on here with more than 50 posts that would abuse the system.

[Steve113]

I think this is a great idea.

Although I was able to give rep and I have <50...

[Lucy]

Originally Posted by Steve113

I think this is a great idea.

Although I was able to give rep and I have <50...

Steve, you have more than 50 posts. 154 as of this post, to be exact.

[Steve113]

Oh, my bad - I read Mikes post as: You can only post rep once you have more than 50 POINTS. Silly me

[COBettaCouple]

Cool, glad we're trying it and hope it works out as a good addition to the forum.

[offminded]

i think this is a good idea...kind of similar to the rating system on ebay...good call!! i would be more inclined to listen to advice from someone with a solid rep rather than someone who does not...i hope it works out!

[Birdo]

Oh I thought the stars meant how much rep you have! I am a newbie and was curious what all the symbols were for. So you get another green box for every 100 points? That seems like a lot of points, and I agree with some of the posts on here perhaps give a number to the box when you roll over it and say reputation. Otherwise lower the good points to 50 per box maybe? What do the stars mean, and why do some people have different colored stars?

[Chief_waterchanger]

Stars have to do with post count, same as your title just under your name. The moderators (Myself, COBettaCouple, Dino, Butterfly, Gunnie, Isabella, Mike, Tom, Sirdarksol, Armadillo, Agansoo, CapeKate, and Chickadee) have a different color of stars and names.

[sirdarksol]

The stars indicate the number of posts. The more posts you have, the more stars you get. Once you have five stars, the next step changes the color of the stars. I believe that the mods all have blue stars.

No reason to lower the points necessary for the reputation system. Neither the post count nor the reputation is a contest. The reason Mike wanted to try out the reputation system was to help new members get a better idea of who has better info around here. Therefore, the entire system is relative. If one member (let's say CWC) has two dots, while the rest of us have one, it's going to show that he's helped a lot of people out.

Edit: Speak of the ninja-ing devil.

[Birdo]

Oh ok, thanks guys! Right after I posted that question I noticed that I had two stars, so I gathered that's probably what it was. Oh well, thanks anyway ah hahaha!

[Stradius011]

Wow omg the forum grew. Everyone has like over 1000 posts now and sweet updates and wow BettaCouple u have over 25,000 =O

[Steve113]

There are people with high post counts - but post counts are not everything. That is the good thing about the rep system. YOu can tell who is contributing to the forum community rather than boosting post counts with irrelevant and un necessary posts:

Ie 100 replies to the "Hi I'm new here" threads - all saying :
"Welcome "
if you catch my drift...

People on forums will always be bothered by post count - It isseen as your status level - where as more often than not, can be attributed to time here and Boosting your count for your own gain rather than to help others. YOu know who you are! those of you than know how many posts you have and are aware that you have 6 more until your title upgrade & +1 star!

If the Rep system is used well - then it will be very beneficial. Although it has already been somewhat abused in favour of the regular posters.

[sirdarksol]

Steve, if you see something you consider to be abuse of the system, please mention it to Mike. He has the ability to check such abuses.

Regular posters are more likely to get higher reputation, because more posts is simply more chances to get rep, and there are going to be some cases where people give rep simply because they agree, rather than because it's a well-thought-out post, but that's kind of minimum.

[Steve113]

That's not what I meant at all.
There are people here who are well known and others no so.

The friends and well known folk will 'big up' eachother's posts, and those of us who are not sitting on 70000000 post's won't get credit. I've seen it happen before - I'm not complaining. Just that's how it works.

As the old saying goes: "It's not what you know, it's who you know"

Sorry If I mislead/ofended anyone.
But it's simply a fact that I have noticed. More of an observation than a complaint.

[Chief_waterchanger]

That is a possibility, Steve. Sadly, people feel the need to do things to circumvent the system when there is even a bit of the "honor" method involved. If it becomes an evident problem I'm sure Mike will nip the problems or take other steps as he sees fit.

We are lucky that the site owner/administrator is a regular here and cares for the site... Many other, unnamed, fish forum sites DO NOT have that luxury.

[Shawnie]

not to mention, whether you have 1 box or 50, we all get along and respect eachother thas a bonus that you dont need a box for !