Idea for Rep

[BSprague]

Here is an idea that is completely unoriginal, and just from what I've seen on other forums. As we all know, reputation is a great way to show appreciation to forum members who serve the community and a way to show the community who is the most helpful.

But like any good thing, this is often abused, being traded or given for reasons that it wasn't originally intended. I don't have a fix to this system, but what I do have is a proposition to add negative reputation. I see posts all the time that are just blatantly useless and don't contribute to the discussion and are most likely just used to inflate post count to get into the Gameshare forum or whatever the individual case may be.

Hopefully implementing a negative reputation system would help to deter people from making useless posts and instead fill the forums with actual content instead of "lol" or "yeah totally" or "in b4 lock!!!111oneoneone!!! lolz". This would also be useful to help with the constant bashing between forum members or unkind words that make their way around.

Every system has a way to be abused and this would be no different. On some forums the person giving the negative reputation may remain anonymous to the person receiving it and I think that should be the case to avoid a situation where we have people getting into "rep wars" or negatively repping each other back and forth. But I do it is best if the person receiving the negative rep why the person who gave them the rep actually gave it to them. So in order to post negative reputation, the person would have to supply a reason alongside the rep for the person to see, similar to how a comment can be left with current rep, but in this case it would be mandatory. Hopefully this system would help people to stop useless posts and flame posts and arguments.

Feel free to post your opinions on this here, assuming you bothered to read it all.

[John25]

negative Rep will be abused alot more than giving someone rep

[MiNiMaL_sAnItY]

We had negative rep before, people used it for differing opinions and supposed alignments to companies. Basically, our members couldnt handle negative rep professionally and it had to be removed to avoid more ****-storms.

[Kopkiwi]

Negative rep is something I feel the forum does need, but you get people, who like positive rep, would abuse it just to spite people they don't very much like.

Also, for the love of god, please add paragraphs. That is painful to read.

[BSprague]

Also, for the love of god, please add paragraphs. That is painful to read.

Fixed. I was in a hurry to get it out while the words were fresh in my head.

We had negative rep before, people used it for differing opinions and supposed alignments to companies. Basically, our members couldnt handle negative rep professionally and it had to be removed to avoid more ****-storms.

Thanks for telling me that, I haven't been around long enough to know. It's a shame, because I think it would help to "clean" and straighten out the forums.

[Sparc]

If you have a problem with a post then counter it with an argument. Hiding behind -rep is cowardly and somewhat spiteful in my opinion. Use your words and intellect to do battle, not some cheap trick.

[claud3]

Neg rep. Would be good to a point

But has many have pointed out it will get used for the wrong reasons. And that is a fact stated by many and you do not see the fault in your idea.

You would need a anti-neg rep abusive team to handle all the neg rep people are getting just for the sake of getting it.

[Jaeger]

If you have a problem with a post then counter it with an argument. Hiding behind -rep is cowardly and somewhat spiteful in my opinion. Use your words and intellect to do battle, not some cheap trick.

Amen to that, brother.

Negative rep is just a cowards way of putting someone down. If you can't fight your side of the arguement with words then you shouldn't be taking part in the arguement.

[Sparc]

I think I should just point out that my comment is not directed specifically at BSprague, whom I sure is a fine upstanding member of the community. Just my thought on the whole neg rep thing

[BSprague]

If you have a problem with a post then counter it with an argument. Hiding behind -rep is cowardly and somewhat spiteful in my opinion. Use your words and intellect to do battle, not some cheap trick.

I understand what you are saying, but if someone says "lol" to a post, I don't want to steer the thread off a cliff by posting a reply saying, "That's really a pointless post, please stay on-topic and stop spamming, you're adding nothing to this thread." At that point, there is going to be a comment back and the next thing you know the thread is useless because of the fighting back and forth, totally off-point, most likely going to result in some infractions, and needs to be locked. It's just my opinion that it would be more effective and less disruptive to take the route of negative rep. But yes, there would most likely need to be a team to handle people misusing rep and handling complains of people who are angry at rep that they deem unjustified.

[Gilly3]

what would be more effective is if you used the report button and let the staff handle spam posts

[[valium]]

Well, when you see a post that makes you wish that you could give them negative reputation it is probably worth reporting. The mods will then take care of the person for you, and instead of just getting some "negative rep" they get a warning, infraction or even worse. To me, that's better. = )
Sometimes I just can't help it though and if it really bothers me I ask them what their problem is and I make them look like a jackass, then I sometimes get a warning myself which I very well deserve from causing a ruckus on the forums.

[SharkOutofWater]

what would be more effective is if you used the report button and let the staff handle spam posts

:iagree

I banned a bot the other day that had 9 posts over the last week (all ads).

We need more people to report these things so we can get rid of them faster. No matter how good the staff is, they are always going to miss things.

As for the negative rep. No, I dont think it is a good idea. Mods have the option already here to use it for trolling etc, but even they dont use it much, as negative rep will just lead to people neg. repping someone they dont agree with, which isnt the point.

[[valium]]

:iagree

I banned a bot the other day that had 9 posts over the last week (all ads).

We need more people to report these things so we can get rid of them faster. No matter how good the staff is, they are always going to miss things.

As for the negative rep. No, I dont think it is a good idea. Mods have the option already here to use it for trolling etc, but even they dont use it much, as negative rep will just lead to people neg. repping someone they dont agree with, which isnt the point.

Whenever I see them, I report them. Those things are so annoying you have no choice. And, I agree as well. Instead of people +repping all of the time just for the hell of it, we would have people -repping.

[Tyrien]

This would be a good thing to counterbalance the alteration of all the rep variables to "tone down" the rep system every few months.

[three3-times]

i think the removal of the 25 post word count has lead to alot of useless posts these days

[V3nom]

I don't think we require a negative rep system around here. You don't need to give rep to someone who hasn't been helpful, just leave them as they are

[Cuguy]

IMO, the best negative rep is the public posting of infractions.

Negative rep, unless it has its own counter/pip system under the positive rep counter, is meaningless.

[L1nux K1ng]

I dissagree with this suggestion. People would use this negative rep system as an oppurtunity to - Rep users they do not like, and it would also decrease their + reputation and also their pips.