Yep.

One of the effects on a system like this on a, dare I say it, "less mature" community is whenever someone gets negative rep, they immediately jump to "AHH EVERYONE HATES ME :'("

No. No, negative rep does not mean people "hate" you. It is (or as least is intended to be) an indication of people's reaction to your posts. If your posts are consistently getting marked down, perhaps there is a legit reason for it, not simply being "hated".

The system is not perfect - none are. People may use the system to bully other users (one of my reasons for advocating being able to see who (and optionally why a user) gives you rep). People need to use the system, both in giving and receiving rep, not to bully but to provide positive or negative reinforcement on behaviour where needed. Don't abuse the system by negative repping someone simply because you're not fond of them or because they said something silly in a different post. But like the reactions, I suppose this comes with the territory of a younger and "less mature" community.

Call me paranoid, but I don't like the "reputation" part of this system. It seems too much like a popularity contest.

The concept of rating a post like they do on YouTube however, I really like.

EDIT: Also, I feel it makes the side bar feel cluttered.

Last edited by mcoov (July 13, 2011 (05:49pm))

Develop that thought further.  I'm a troll.  I'm going to choose not to get rated and spam the entire forum.

Not going to work.

currently, i went through my posts myself too, and what i found was, well i managed to find out that someone had given me a -1 rep for asking help. We truly need this comment thingy, go and see www.suvaline.org/MM/index.php altough its in EST, when you clik on a username you can see reputation under reputatsioon and by clkicking detailid right after that meter, you see comments, thats what we need too, right now people just seem to rate posts whitout thinking.

Last edited by makerimages (July 14, 2011 (04:59am))

The thing with knowing who gave you a negative rep is that it causes payback-repping. Another forum community that I'm part of has a rep system similar to what makerimages showed, where you and everyone else can see who gave you what rep, and people still abuse the system even though you're required to write a comment giving a valid reason for repping the user. A "you gave me a neg so I'll give you one in return and maybe even get my friends to neg rep you too" sort of thing, which has little to do with how the person actually behaves on the forums.

So I think the way the rep system is set up on here is not bad at all.

Do I not have a reputation meter? Or has no one rated me?

Looking back on yesterday's changes, with a now clearer view on things I think we are better off without the system.

The key to it not affecting community life negatively is that it isn't taken too seriously. But if it isn't taken too seriously, then why should it affect community life positively? Ít's EITHER so important to people that they think twice and triple and quadruple before posting anything which would result in unpleasantly forced dealings with each other OR so unimportant that it's pretty much neglected. At its best, it doesn't change or make better a thing.

What I'd propose to change about the system, so that it works, is the following:
We need to keep the reputation system strictly positive. You would be able to give someone a point, but you couldn't take one away. That way, there'll be no hating, only love - kind of like in facebook (there's a reason Mr. Zuckerberg doesn't implement a dislike button). With all the friendliness of it there'll still be different reputation scores, though, and there'd be some real motivation to write good posts (because you'll get points). The system would be a lot less random. I mean, the option to downrate people just for fun would be gone. You could only uprate for fun, but then, who would complain about this?
Negative ratings are crap (excuse my language, please). With all-positive repution meters, you could STILL compare people. For example, let's say I'll have 20 points - Smeagol will have 50. You can clearly tell how's more popular, but there'll be motivation to make more and better posts and in turn get more points, rising in ranking.

However, how should a rating of -32 be any motivational? That's just asocial to the holder and certainly no motivation. There'll always be sillyheads who downrate and downrate and downrate for no apparent reason, just like on youtube. Ever seen a video, however perfect and great and brilliant it is, without any people disliking it for no reason whatsoever?

We need some POSITIVITY! Mods and Admins please consider my suggestion.

Pacific, you used a bad word in your post - BADBOY.

I think the negative is to encourage us not to make pointless posts. If there was only a +, sure, we'd get more good posts, but also still more bad ones!
This is always depending on the maturity of the members here or course.