Reputation and it's Flaws

I like your views Saikyo... sure reputation is amused to watch as it grows but at the same time you gotta wonder if you earned it or not.
I like earning what I have and honestly, even though I don't have much, I don't feel like I deserved some of what I have, y'know?
And that bothers me highly just because I'm that type of person. And it does feel like hierarchy, and also feels as if it's a popularity contest as well.

 

I didn't noticed the "reputation" system. I've seen some members congratulate others on getting a new gem... but never attached importance to it.
Everyday I enter the forum to post, share and have fun with all of you without taking into account the supposed reputation system.
Regarding problems 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, I think they are a constant premise on forums generally.

This is my small opinion ^^

 

Consider this. I spend hours researching facts, recollecting lessons and organizing them in a way to be informative and helpful in topics such as sexuality, religion and society, yet but a few people even give a toss.

I put my face on a girl wearing bikini using Paint Tool, I get several points of rep.

I would like to see system in which administrators and moderators repute people only. Perhaps current reputations should be reset.

I have no say over what happens, only what I think should, and as it stands, we're simply incapable of using rep properly.

Bias aside, there's still the case that it's easier to receive rep now than in the early days of the site, due to the higher number of posts. Post count and rep can only go up. That's worth considering.

 

Once I saw that getting your gems and getting your rep up was the big thing here. When I was new I thought all the people here were big timers, just like Saikyo said. But once I got into the radio and began chatting things up, I slowly realized that indeed, ya'll are just a great bunch of ponies and nothing more. I don't care anymore about popularity or post size. I got 2 gems, but that dosen't mean i'm not any less awesome! So far i've made some awesome friend and I only look forward to making more, that should be everyone's concern, not rep.

 

I've only ever been on one other forum for an extended period of time, and this was a constant topic of debate, and disagreement for them. At one time I wanted to eliminate the rep system altogether, which is what I believe ended up happening in the end anyway, but over time I grew to simply ignore it before that happened.

I was always the radical person who thought both post count, and reputation should be eliminate to keep things from turning into a popularity or importance contest between people who have a lot of both, or do not. These days I find myself caring less, and less about the topic, because it's all really in your head. There will always be some people who take it upon themselves to post 30+ times a day, the one's we call spammers, whether there is a post count or not, and I think it's easy to write those people off when thinking about who is really contributing to the community, and who isn't.

It's the same way with reputation. There are some people that you know just lobbied for the points they have, but there are others who have been here for a long time, gained peoples approval through their interaction, and earned their points the right way. You just have to separate the two types of people in your head, because I've never found a way to "fix" either counts. In the end, I think we all know who is really respected, and whatnot on here, and we don't need points to let us know that, but I don't think it's the bane of the forum's existence either.

 

I agree with these ideas heavily. I don't think that it should be taken away completely, because it could be a way to show that a user has intelligence or would be useful to ask questions to, but I agree it shouldn't be used to rep someone for one liners.
I looked back over my rep and most of it is for useful or intelligent posts, but there are some in there for some one liners I said. So IMO I'd suggest not being able to rep on the games forum, and having to actually put a reason for repping. Also posts not longer than a certain number of words shouldn't be able to be repped.

 

@Lupr

I have been rep trolled in a post,
For voicing my confusion about why people give me rep.

Anywho;
Moving back to the given topic,
I would agree that post count influencing rep given
Is merely causing inflation of rep,
And decrease in both it's value and time required
To earn it.

Also rep has become devalued
Simply because how liberal people (including myself) have become with it.
A solution I'd like to propose is implementing
A time limit on how often you can give out rep,
In addition to the daily rep cap.

One could argue that a flaw with this addition might be
That it may impede you in giving valuable posts rep.
I would like to rebut that on the spot with;
If you consider a post deserving of rep,
You could probably leave it open in a tab and wait
For the time restriction to expire.
If you're not willing to do so,
It's probably not truly deserving of that rep anyway.

Secondly,
I would like to ask that the amount of other people you must
Hand out rep to be increased to prevent people from
Simply giving each other rep methodically.

Those are my propositions to address
The aforementioned problems numbers 1,2 and 3.

Finally,
I would like to impress upon people
How little value rep actually has.
I have said before;
"It's just an unsigned byte stored in some SQL table".
That's all it is.
The gems are algorithmically assigned based on that number.
They bear no value beyond being
Arrays of byte data encoded in GIF format.

Rep has little to do with a person's social status,
What they say typically does.

As an afterthought;
The removal of the rep system is an unnecessary extreme.
It's not the cause of the problem,
The cause of the problem is it being exploited by users.
It may need some tweaking to get it to work,
But if rep could have at some value assigned to it,
By making it hard to earn an worth something,
It could be used as a great way of voicing your agreement.

 

Funny people mostly get reputation. Afterwards come the helpful ones, and after them - the intelligent ones.
But, before all, popular people get the most reputation. The system is flawed, and i am pretty sure there is no way to solve the flaw (because it's not the flaw of the system itself, it's the flaw of the users). People tend to give reputation to those who make them smile, not those who write something thought-out well and logical.
I, at first, was FOR a reputation system (When there was none back in the day) but now i don't really mind it. People that like it should use it. I'd suggest (though) to add a "hide rep count" option.

 

While I'll agree with a bunch
Of what you said I must point one thing out.
Popular, funny, intelligent or helpful aren't
Mutually exclusive characteristics that define people.
Some may fall under multiple.
Some may fall under none.
As to hiding rep;
I will voice my agreement to that notion.

 

Seeing that rep power has been defined to be proportional to the post count, i suggest we change it to be actually proportional to the actual amount of rep, meaning:

1. Users with less than 100 rep points have the power of +1 rep point
2. Users with rep between 100 and 200 points have the power of +2 rep point
3. Users with rep between 200 and 300 points have the power of +3 rep point
And so forth. It would definitely take away and remove 1 reason to spam posts. If we're gonna keep the Rep system, i suggest we change it to this. If 'tis not possible (for now) to change to this, remove the rep power system all-together and just give all the users (exept mods and admins) +1 rep power.

 

The above system still causes rep inflation.
Because Quantity is directly proportional to Rate of Change.
(In an idealistic set of circumstances.)
Implement a 1 point of rep cap,
And a 1 hour limit between repping people.

And/Or.
Leave the rep cap as it is,
But allow user to choose how much rep they give
Per time they rep a user,
And give them a daily rep pool of how much
Rep they can give out per day in total.
(Probably equal to their max rep given,
That way they can only give someone max rep once.)

 

*Hugs Saikyo tightly* I wanted to post a rant about this in the other thread about the rep system, but I'm so glad you posted this! Maybe I should... give you some rep for it? :Trollestia:

Seriously though,

I think it should be removed permanently. It's not a necessary feature and only gives off the wrong impression of importance and/or reputability. Real reputation is more important than pixels below your name and above your avatar.

I used to like the rep system, back when we didn't have members capable of giving 7 or 8 points per +rep. The concept of rep-power, albeit is an interesting one, is based on such a frivolous quanity, that also some ponies put too much stock into, and that's post count, of all things. The system has been inflated. Users are earning red-gems too quickly. It's lost its value. There are members here I can think of that only have 2 green gems, yet I know for a fact are more reputable than many of the red-gemmers, including myself. The idea of what is rep-worthy is too subjective. I've seen well thought-out posts go by with out so much of an acknowledgement, while one-liners in games or the general chat get +repped. Sometimes for reasons not even related to the post.

Which is another issue, the rep-trolling and the buddy-system that Saikyo was referring to, members just +repping to let the member gain a gem. I've been a victim myself. Granted, I both liked and disliked it at the same time. I liked the fact I had a friend that was kind enough to do that for me, but at the same time I feel like I didn't earn it, but it was only given to me because the person liked me. Other members have been +repped for reasons outside of Everypony. That's not what the system was designed for. It was for post-specific reasons. Not because you're friends with the person. Not because you want to just give them another gem. Not so you can +rep them for a reason outside of Everypony or the post (I have to admit, I did this last one myself before, so I'm not guiltless).

I don't want a replacement for the rep-system. I don't want "improvements" to be made to it. You can cap it all you want. You can change the algorithms all you want. There will still be the buddy-rep system and the rep-trolling. The only way you can eliminate that, is to eliminate the system itself. Besides, some users have even stated they don't care about it too much, so why even keep it? I say scrap the whole thing and throw it in the trash. It was a fun system, but it's been exploited for its flaws.

A previous forum I was a member of didn't even have a rep-system, and it worked out just fine. We don't need it and it gives off the wrong impression about real reputation, especially to those that are new.

It's refuse. That's my opinion.

 

Yes the rep trolls are bad, just repping because they feel like it.

Maybe mod approved rep only.

I agree everyone should have the same repping powers.

I barley rep anymore. Someone has to do something spectacular to get rep from me. I think the last person was you Saikyo. and you know why.

That is true. I wish it wasn't but it is. Though I like the gems above my name.

This is why I have a rep system in my head. certain people here may not have the fancy gems above their names, but in my head they have 12 red gems.

I like the rep, but yes it needs to be reworked in a big way.

 

Well this certainly helped me. And I think all of you are right. Nova Glitz has a good point.

 

Well, I have been using TapaTalk all the time on this forum, except when I post my drawings. And I didn't even know there was a rep-system. I see who's intelligent, funny and so on.

But I wonder if I have any of this "rep"? *runs to computer*