[Luckless]

ooh, reasons for -1 would be cool, but then again, the moderators would have to sift through it I don't think that really solves much. I guess it's good the way it is. I haven't been raped by it yet (since I'm helpful and all ).

[Lemur]

theaegd had like -150 from the caffeine lounge, I would say that qualifies as a gang-bang.

[Luckless]

mine's falling ever so slightly

[Anday]

Curtis Rutland, on 24 May 2011 - 06:48 AM, said:

The "formula" is to be nice, knowledgeable, and helpful. And not an asshole. Except in the lounge, where it's OK to be a jerk.

With a large forums such as this, there will always be people who will give negative rep because they feel like it perhaps or if they disagree with something being said in the post, though it may not be bad at all. The negative rep system may balance itself out, but the first statement will always be true. Especially when considering that there are jerks and assholes, like you mentioned, and they will try to abuse that power.

I do lean towards Lemur's suggestion with a way to downvote a person's post in a topic, though. Or even limiting the use of negative rep to high ranking people.

Curtis Rutland, on 24 May 2011 - 06:48 AM, said:

Now, I wonder why someone would join the forum specifically to tell us our rep system is invalid. Are you perhaps an existing member that didn't want to use their normal account to say this? Or someone who's been downvoted for something in the past and is trying to start over with a new account?

I appreciate the feedback, but I just haven't gotten around to posting, seeing as I have recently joined, and wanted to voice an opinion. My question is, should I be afraid to speak my mind here?

[darek9576]

Why are people so concerned about being down repped. Its not the end of the world.

[macosxnerd101]

Quote

Especially when considering that there are jerks and assholes, like you mentioned, and they will try to abuse that power.

If you feel somebody is abusing the reputation system, you can report them by going to that member's profile and hitting the report button. The moderating team will review the situation, and may possibly move that member to the Rep Abusers group, so he or she cannot use the reputation system.

Quote

I do lean towards Lemur's suggestion with a way to downvote a person's post in a topic, though. Or even limiting the use of negative rep to high ranking people.

There is a post count requirement to give negative reputation, and a limit on the number of up and down votes a person can give in a day.

Quote

Negative rep isn't useful in any way. If people have a problem with the post, it becomes apparent by people telling that person so.

I think you're missing the point of the rep system. It's not about handing out gold stars. It's about highlighting helpful or quality responses with upvotes; or unhelpful, trolling, or poor quality posts with a downvote. It makes it easier for somebody who isn't all that knowledgeable in a subject to quickly find posts that are relevant and helpful in a thread. Certainly in the lounge, the purpose of rep is a little different.

Also, if somebody is posting crappy information more often than not, then their rep may suffer. Is it to punish them? No. If a member is helpful and provides quality responses, then knowledgeable members of the community upvote them. I've seen a number of members go from very negative to positive reputation simply by helping out.

Tl;dr- Don't worry too much about rep. Post some, have fun, and rep works itself out. It's not that big a deal, and there are checks in place to handle rep abuse.

[Curtis Rutland]

I've been here for a while now. Seriously, if you want to see how well the rep system works, go to my profile and go through the pages of rep I have. A very few people have downrepped me for little to no reason, and it's always been balanced out. I think our system works just fine.

Quote

My question is, should I be afraid to speak my mind here?

Not at all, assuming what's on your mind is relevant. If it's not, or blatantly wrong, it should and will get downvoted. Again, I'll use myself as an example. I don't pander, but I don't hold back my opinions either. Many respect that. And to hell with the ones that don't; there aren't enough of them to bring us down.

Also, we have a few loopholes set up to prevent rep abuse. People who start to downrep pointlessly (or ones who uprep for no reason) will be moved into a rep abuser group, where they won't be able to rep anymore. Or they'll get banned, since they usually make a huge nuisance of themselves. Also, New members can't downrep until they have a certain number of posts.

Edit: You guys see what I mean about macosxnerd101!?!

This post has been edited by Curtis Rutland: 24 May 2011 - 08:51 PM

[Anday]

I'm not trying to make it a big deal, I just saw the title and thought it to be an interesting topic. I've seen problems with negative rep first hand, so that is where I am making my judgments. I suppose that the average age level and atmosphere would have a major influence on that, though.

Thanks for the responses guys!

[no2pencil]

Anday, on 24 May 2011 - 11:47 PM, said:

I've seen problems with negative rep first hand

I would be interested to take a closer look at these problems, can you please provide links?

[Anday]

Oh, sorry for the misconception. I was referring to other sites not this one.

In the site I was mostly referring to, people use the negative rep system on others just because of their personal feelings towards that person and get a mob together to do the same even though that targeted member was being respectful and helpful.

[Dogstopper]

We call that reputation abuse here, and once you abuse reputation in any way, you will no longer be allowed to use it. Also, the members here don't gang up on people (unless it's the lounge) if the advice is truly good and helpful.

[Atli]

Lemur said:

All joking aside though we could make a system where people have to say WHY it was a bad post instead of rep raping for frivolous reasons.

This.

I've seen this sort of thing elsewhere and thought it was a good feature. Helps tell justified votes from... others. - I mean, if you can't say why a post is bad, should you really be voting on the issue at all?

[modi123_1]

Bah - if you have a question on "why" just PM the member. I did this a few weeks ago and led to an interesting conversation from an unhappy camper with me. Cest la vie.

[no2pencil]

Atli, on 25 May 2011 - 12:19 AM, said:

Helps tell justified votes from... others.

It shouldn't even be a question. A member is to down vote if the answer is incorrect, inaccurate, or unhelpful.

[Lemur]

...I'm still mildly tempted to see how many downreps it takes until I get put on a hot list, and considering macsie has so much reps, what better target?

Ha, the chances of people taking the time to bother are low which means most of the spam reps will be gone and people can't play the favorite game. (For instance, everytime I call out wolfcoder in the caf lounge my rep drops pretty fast )

EDIT - NOW I'm curious, can a mod PM me the magic banhammer number?

This post has been edited by Lemur: 24 May 2011 - 09:46 PM