Rep Changes

[Darth Laidher]

So what, I don't care what he did on another forum, what I want to know is if there is going to be a poll up to vote or not.

[Charisma Veteran]

We don't have a problem of new members abusing the rep system.

Dave Legg explained it best. The staff want reputation to be an indication of how helpful a member is to others.

Members, however, tend to vote up members that agree with them even if that includes bullying an unpopular member or attacking Apple/Sony/Microsoft.

In other words, members are using the rep system to reward members who aren't, from our perspective, helpful.

We certainly don't want a system that rewards trolls with rep points.

Rep is short for 'reputation', right? If so... what you've described is exactly what a reputation is. Think about it in real-life terms. Someone is usually more popular if lots of people agree with them. Even the trolls have friends, and their own popular/castout folks in the freak-social circle. I can see what you/the staff is going for in terms of the rep system, but I honestly don't know if it can be done. The scenarios you described occur everywhere with people of all walks of life, it's just part of human nature.

However, I shall sit back and watch to see what happens. I'd be delighted to be proven wrong and for your rating system of the 'truly helpful' to work :)

[petrossa]

I am well aware with what the law states, I was just making the point that if you apply a crack to a game you have already purchased , regardless of what the law says, it won't hurt the developer in the way that piracy does. I don't actually advocate piracy, I just don't see no CD patches being as big a deal as most people make out.

Which is probably why the system is best left disabled.

You've got my vote. Sometimes i got the feeling we're posting on a kindergarten schoolbord. I remember getting a rubberstamp of a teddybear on my hand if i did well. Red if it was really well done, green of it was just well done. In the end everyone had a stamp and angry mothers.

[neufuse Veteran]

did the rep system go away or am I just missing it completely now?

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

did the rep system go away or am I just missing it completely now?

It's been turned off.

[Subject Delta]

So you're saying you agree what you did was promoting copyright infringement but you disagree with being banned for promoting copyright infringement because it isn't bad as promoting copyright infringement?

No, I said that I don't consider no CD patches to be as bad a form of copyright infringement as actual piracy, and I find it highly amusing that someone with a pirate party avatar is taking a "holier than thou" stance on an issue like this. I simply don't believe that no CD patches being used by legitimate customers harms developers as much as pirating the game would. Is there any part of this that is in any way unclear to you? because I really just think you are being pedantic for the sake of it.

[Duality]

Neowin does not need a rep points system.

[Singh400]

Neowin does not need a rep points system.

Agreed, but the staff clearly think it does.

[Panacik]

I dont see the reps anymore :s

It's been turned off.

Oopps, i spoke to soon.

[Colin-uk Veteran]

I dont see the reps anymore :s

have you cleared your cache?

just kidding. they have been turned off for now.

:p

[markwolfe Veteran]

Agreed, but the staff clearly think it does.

I would vote to turn on the warning display for all users. :ninja:

[Calum Veteran]

Neowin does not need a rep points system.

I disagree. I agree with what DaveLegg, Fred Derf and Neobond have said in this thread (there's no need for me to reiterate what they've said).

[Growled Member]

Neowin does not need a rep points system.

If you were a newcomer here, posting for help on some topic, how would you know which post you could trust? If we had a decent rep system, then you would know that the poster who had a high number of rep points had helped many people in the past and you could trust what he said. In any given help thread, we sometimes have wildly conflicting advice. To me it would be comforting to know that if a poster told me I had to delete something to fix something, that he had many rep points behind his advice. I would hate to take the advice of some random poster and boink my installation.

[Duality]

I understand your points and what you are trying to do, however in its current form it doesn't quite fit what you want - and it is very easily abused.

Unfortunately I have no suggestions to offer that would improve it. I had thought of implementing it so that rep can only be given in technical sections of the forum - the places where questions are most asked and help most sought after - but I struggled with the fact that pretty much every section has questions asked, and you would have to differentiate thread by thread as to whether it is a thread that rep would be useful in, or just another thread where a user farms a load of points because he posted something funny.

'Tis a tough one. Neowin needs something - but I am not sure that a "rep" system in it's current form is what we need. But yes, I agree - we need something to differentiate the good posts from the bad, and the same for the people that post.

[Growled Member]

'Tis a tough one. Neowin needs something - but I am not sure that a "rep" system in it's current form is what we need. But yes, I agree - we need something to differentiate the good posts from the bad, and the same for the people that post.

I think that's why the current rep system was scraped. In it's current form it wasn't working. You couldn't tell a good poster from a bad poster with the current system. I have great faith in the team here and they will come up with something that works.

[Raa]

I would vote to turn on the warning display for all users.

I agree with that.

I also agree that we don't need a PUBLIC rep system, at the least.

If staff want to play rep - then let them. Go for it, rep who you like, but don't get us involved. That should be enough to solve both sides of the arguement!

Personally, I don't feel any member should be valued any more or less for ANY reason. Whether that's rep points, being a subscriber, or having <x> posts.

Rappy excepted.

[Minifig]

I wonder if there's an ability to set Rep by user, if they want it on, or off, in their user settings.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

I wonder if there's an ability to set Rep by user, if they want it on, or off, in their user settings.

i'm guessing no

[zhangm Supervisor]

I believe the major flaw in the rep system was that there was no limit to the number of rep points. Since people weren't giving up anything by giving away rep, they freely repped things that, shall we say, weren't very meritorious?

If we were to have a rep system, I think we'd need to limit the number of reputation points. We need a rep pool; the Neowin Treasury, with 100 rep points accessible only to moderators, administrators, MVCs, etc. These people can access the pool and give rep points to users. Once a user has been given a rep point, they can give it to someone else. That rep point also starts to accumulate a "history" of sorts - attach the name of every previous recipient of the rep point, and make sure that no one who has previously been given that rep point can receive it again (but they can receive "new" rep points). If the rep point is not passed on to someone within three days, it falls back into the treasury pool, and its history is deleted. A person can display how many reps (only those in current circulation) have their name attached to them.

In this system, reps have value because they are scarce, and they increase in value when transferred, giving people motivation for doing so (they get rewarded in the "history" of the rep), and they are more likely to transfer it to deserving people, since that can increase the lifetime of the rep point. Finally, you don't end up with rep hoarding, since the points lose value if they aren't given away.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

I believe the major flaw in the rep system was that there was no limit to the number of rep points. Since people weren't giving up anything by giving away rep, they freely repped things that, shall we say, weren't very meritorious?

If we were to have a rep system, I think we'd need to limit the number of reputation points. We need a rep pool; the Neowin Treasury, with 100 rep points accessible only to moderators, administrators, MVCs, etc. These people can access the pool and give rep points to users. Once a user has been given a rep point, they can give it to someone else. That rep point also starts to accumulate a "history" of sorts - attach the name of every previous recipient of the rep point, and make sure that no one who has previously been given that rep point can receive it again (but they can receive "new" rep points). If the rep point is not passed on to someone within three days, it falls back into the treasury pool, and its history is deleted. A person can display how many reps (only those in current circulation) have their name attached to them.

In this system, reps have value because they are scarce, and they increase in value when transferred, giving people motivation for doing so (they get rewarded in the "history" of the rep), and they are more likely to transfer it to deserving people, since that can increase the lifetime of the rep point.

your wrong there was a limit, being a tier 2 subscriber removes that limit though, everyone below tier 2 has, or should i say had, a limit

[name in use]

I also agree that we don't need a PUBLIC rep system, at the least.

If staff want to play rep - then let them. Go for it, rep who you like, but don't get us involved. That should be enough to solve both sides of the arguement!

I love this idea. +1 rep for that Good idea!

[zhangm Supervisor]

your wrong there was a limit, being a tier 2 subscriber removes that limit though, everyone below tier 2 has, or should i say had, a limit

You didn't understand, I mean a limit on the total number of reps that exist at one time, not "you can give X reps per day."

[Eric Veteran]

I liked the Simple Machines Forum karma system. I'm not sure if there is a karma mod for IPB, though.

[Steven P. Administrators]

The biggest problem we face imo is that a rep system is all well and good when it can't be abused, but the other problem Neowin has is that "bad members" are impossible to tell for new members and maybe less active ones. There is no "mark" on your profile to show other users that the member has been in trouble with site moderators on multiple occasions, and the concensous is that it wouldn't even be a good idea to show it, because those same members may even use the "mark" as a badge of honour, while others will do everything in their power to get back down to 0% again (and this does happen).

I'm not trying to generalise that group, as I have seen a few go from 100% to 0% warning level, bearing in mind that takes 2.5 years (auto reduction every 6 months), that is pretty impressive! Kudos to them (Y)

My problem is the group that continually questions and responds negatively to any staff decision or announcement (like this one) because they are on high warns and are just being difficult, and because they can, if their profile was marked, then other members might see their responses like I do in a totally different light. These people are the ones that fail any sort of "faith" system where we put the power in your own hands, and ask not to abuse it.

[Shaun N.]

I wish I could have the rep system back for the "Son I am disappoint" to Minifig - You would get so many reps Neobond