Reputation: what it is, how it works, and why you want it.

[jcroft]

One of the most interesting features on the new forums is the "reputation" system that is built-in. In many ways, this replaces the arcane use of post count as a means of determining someone's reliability and contribution to the forums. I thought I'd take a moment to explain how it works.

How do I see my reputation?
On each post, there is a reputation meter below your username. It shows up as a series of green or red squares, indicating positive or negative reputation. The more green squares you have, the higher your rep. The more red squares you have, the worse your rep. You can also roll your move over the rep meter to get a cute description of your current rep.

How do I contribute to someone's rep?
If you come across a post that you find to be particularly useful, or particularly un-helpful, then you may want to assign it positive or negative rep. To do so, click the reputation icon in the upper right of the post. It's next to the post number, and looks like a document with a green plus sign on it.

How is my rep calculated?
There is quite a complex algorithm in place for rep calculation, which takes into account many factors. The core concept you need to understand is that you not only have a reputation level, but you also have a "reputation-giving power," as well. Your reputation-giving power increases as you prove yourself to be a solid contributor to the forum community. So, if a brand new member gives me rep points, it won't add a very significant amount of rep to my status. But, if a member who has a great deal of posts, a high reputation him/herself, and has been a member for a long time gives me rep points, then this will affect me more greatly, as that person will have achieved a higher reputation-giving power.

But won't people just...
In short, no. People can't get their friends to just willy-nilly give them rep. People can't abuse the system very easily at all. There are many, many hooks in place to prevent abuse of the reputation system. i won't detail them here, but I assure you, they're there.

Finally...
The system is complex and there's no need to understand it fully. What you need to know is that if you make quality posts that people find useful, funny, informative, or otherwise happy, they will give you positive rep points and both your reputation and reputation-giving power will grow. Compared to post counts, this means that you are not only judged based on the number of posts you make, but also on the quality of those posts. We hope this will cut down on the "post-whoring" (obvious attempts at raising post count for no good reason). Because reputation is so much better a judge of a person's contributions, we have decided to display it on each person's post, rather than post count. If you wish to see someone's post count, it still appears on their profile -- just not on every single post.

[ASurroca]

Regarding abuse of the rep system, you'll notice that after you've given one user a rep point, you cannot give this user another one until you've given points to a certain number of other users. In other words, to abuse the reputation system, you would have to become part of a gigantic X-Files style conspiracy.

[jcroft]

Originally Posted by ASurroca

Regarding abuse of the rep system, you'll notice that after you've given one user a rep point, you cannot give this user another one until you've given points to a certain number of other users. In other words, to abuse the reputation system, you would have to become part of a gigantic X-Files style conspiracy.

Don't give them any ideas.

[Sukhoidave]

I make lots of mistakes with my computer. Thank goodness for the post editing ability of the forums.

I made a mistake in giving feedback for a post and found I couldn't go back and fix it or apologize or anything.

I'll be more careful in the future.

[jcroft]

Originally Posted by Sukhoidave

I make lots of mistakes with my computer. Thank goodness for the post editing ability of the forums.

I made a mistake in giving feedback for a post and found I couldn't go back and fix it or apologize or anything.

I'll be more careful in the future.

Don't sweat it. At the moment, no one has especially high rep-giving power. Your mistake won't affect the recipients rep much, if at all. Over time, as we all get rep, make more posts, and sort of "prove ourselves" to the rep system, we'll get more rep-giving power.

[beej]

I really do not understand why rep point matter

[jcroft]

Originally Posted by beej

I really do not understand why rep point matter

They may not matter to you, and that's fine. But, on the fold forums (and on many other forums around the Internet), people looked to a person's post count as a means of determining if they are a well-respected member who knows what he/she is talking about. Post count, though, is not really a very accurate means of determining the reputation of a person -- just because they could make 5000 posts doesn't mean they made a single quality post. The reputation system gives a more accurate look at how reputable a person is. It also serves (at least in theory) to cut down on post whoring.

Again, you may have no interest in a person's reputation, and that's just fine. But the person who comes across the org looking for advice on how to fix their broken car might want to know who knows what they're talking about and who doesn't. The reputation system isn't perfect -- for example, a very smart and helpful person might have joined just yesterday and wouldn't have a high rep yet -- but it's sure better than post counts.

[beej]

Ah ok, on some sites I have been on, rep points were a part of the features, but largely ingored by the users

[skimble]

I see the rep system aiding the mods in determining what the org's feelings are about a particularly troublesome member, such as He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named from Florida, for instance. Rather than get into a flamefest, it'll be easy for everyone to see if someone is consistently being a moron/troll/whatever, and ignore them, plus a mod can quickly point to that person's rep when the moron invariably denies any wrongdoing. I'm guessing that there's also some kind of alert feature built into the new forums, so mods will get automatic notification when anything really nasty upsets a lot of members.

I'm sorry to see the old forums put in stasis, but features like this one more than make up for it.

[Pulgamovil]

That post of you Skimble is so good I am going to vote for your repo!!!

[noR]

I'm gonna take this moment to point out one major thing... PLEASE don't go around posting in your posts that you're giving rep. The person will see the rep change. We don't need to start seeing "reputation for you my man" all over.

Hehe. Sorry to point it out; but this is as good a thread as any. Having that plastered throughout the threads would encourage abuse I think.

[Herbie3Rivers]

Ok, so the way I understand this is, users give rep, but does it go up based on the # of posts?

[jcroft]

Originally Posted by Herbie3Rivers

Ok, so the way I understand this is, users give rep, but does it go up based on the # of posts?

Yes. There are three ways to get rep points. Everyone starts out with 10 rep points. You can gain points by::

- For every x number of days you are a member, you'll get a rep point.
- For every x number of posts you make, you'll get a rep point.
- A user can give you rep points for one of your posts. How many rep points they give with each click of the button depends on their current rep-giving power.

To start, everyone gives 1 rep point with each click. Users must have a reputation of at least 10 points (which is what you start with) and at least 25 posts before their rep clicks count towards the person they are rep-clicking (in other words, they'll be yellow clicks unless the person has at rep of at least 10 and at least 25 posts). For every 50 points of rep a person has, they gain one point of rep-altering power.

So:

- If a person with a rep of 9 and 15 posts clicks on you, you gain nothing (yellow rep hit) -- until that person has upped their rep to 10 and has 25 posts (then it turns green).
- If a person with a rep of 10 and over 25 posts clicks on you, you'll gain one rep point.
- If a person with a rep of 50 clicks on you, you'll get two rep points.
- If a person with a rep of 100 clicks on you, you'll get three rep points.

And so on.

It's probably also noteworthy to point out that all administrators started with 300 rep points, and all moderators with 100. Again, all regular members start out with 10 rep points. After a week and a half of new forums, most regular members have between 20 and 40 rep points. There are several, though, that have passed 50 points, giving them another point of rep-giving power. There are a few that are getting close to 100 points. No, I won't tell you who they are.

So that should give you a pretty good outline.

[Herbie3Rivers]

Cool, got it now. Thanks Jeff.

[Toad]

And if the person that gives you rep gives you a yellow rep point, it wont change to green afther thier rep has gone up, they'll have to re-rep you.

[AmyJane]

Does the amount of people you can give rep to a day go down as your rep giving power goes up? Seems that way to me...but maybe its just me.

[jcroft]

Originally Posted by CyberGreenBaby

Does the amount of people you can give rep to a day go down as your rep giving power goes up? Seems that way to me...but maybe its just me.

No, it doesn't. Everyone can give only 10 rep-clicks per day, no matter what their current level (the only expection is administrators, who are exepmt from the limit).

[jcroft]

Originally Posted by Toad

And if the person that gives you rep gives you a yellow rep point, it wont change to green afther thier rep has gone up, they'll have to re-rep you.

No, that's incorrect. If a person gives you a bit of yellow rep, it will change to green if and when their rep goes up.

[Mazzzja]

Is it possible to see who you have been giving reputation yourself?
Because you can't give someone rep points, without giving other people rep points (obviously).
So I'd like to see somewhere when I gave someone rep points. Or am I just wishfull thinking....

[jdesigns]

Originally Posted by Mazzzja

Is it possible to see who you have been giving reputation yourself?
Because you can't give someone rep points, without giving other people rep points (obviously).
So I'd like to see somewhere when I gave someone rep points. Or am I just wishfull thinking....

You can see who you have given rep to, as well as who has given you rep at www.newbeetle.org. It's on the left side under "Your Account"


Cheers!