Reputation gone?

[Sapper6]

just got on and noticed no one's reputation is visible...it's all gone. what's up? it didn't go away did it?

 

[jfarnsworth]

It was there this morning. :idunno:

 

[mantis]

It was there this morning. :idunno:

i was wondering about that too
mine's gone
im glad it is though
was horrible! haha

 

[Bob Hubbard]

The Reputation system has been temporarily disabled due to a few bad apples abusing it. While most of our members used it responsibly and as intended, a few have been using it to insult, demean, belittle and otherwise abuse it.

In addition to the abuse, the constant complaints, several bordering on whining from a few individuals guilty of the same abuse they complain about has gotten tiring.

As a result, I have taken that feature off line while I consider options.

They are:
- Remove the system completely
- Force commenter ID (meaning your name will be visible)
- Allow only Positive Rep.
- Allow anyone positive rep, but only supporting members or above can neg-rep.
- Disallowing comments all together. Just + or -

The system was intended to be something fun, a nice way to reward those who contribute and nudge those who don't. Instead, it's been a headache. I will be looking into the matter this week and seeing what I can do to possibly return this feature to use, while minimizing abuse and headaches.

Thank you.

 

[shesulsa]

I suppose that since I had the highest rep on the board, anything I say will be considered suspect. But I'm going to say it anyway.

I'm wondering why the "few bad apples" can't just be dealt with on an individual level? If most of us are adult enough to handle the throes and woes of the rep point system, why do we all need to suffer? I can understand if most of the members had problems with it, but ... "a few bad apples?"

Though the alternatives you put forth are worth consideration, I can't help but think of watching those with relatively high post counts and low rep ... it speaks for itself, likewise those with low post count having high rep. No system can EVER be perfect and if some of us are that hung up on repuation, then those are the people who seriously need to disable it.

Just my .02

 

[Bob Hubbard]

I'm hoping this is temporary. I'm in the middle of preparing for some major board upgrades. MT is last on the list as it's the heaviest modified. There are supposed to be some improvements to the system, so we will see.

 

[dubljay]

In my not so humble opinion I think that the removal of the rep system will decrease the amount of bickering that occasionally flares up due to dings.

After I became a supporting member I dissabled rep points for myself because I wanted people to confront me if I gave offense. I only enabled rep points after being asked to be a moderator because I felt that it was a neutral method of approaching me.

I feel that the removal of the rep system will help keep personal ideological differences between members off the forums and in priviate, either via PM or email or instant messenger. I have always maintained a public email address and instant messager screen names so that if someone felt the need they could speak with me off MartialTalk. In fact I encourage anyone to contact me for any reason, whether it be to air a grevence or to simply chat.

The missuse of the rep system is rather sad, and does not give the feel of a 'Friendly discussion about the martial arts'.

Again in my not so humble opinion if you find something that bothers you, discuss it, don't provoke a conflict, if discussion fails simply ignore the situation or the person (there is an ignore feature). If it can't be ignored and discussion is not working then bring it to the staff that's why we are here.

[font=helvetica, arial, verdana, sans serif][font=helvetica, arial, verdana, sans serif]"The ultimate aim of karate lies not in victory or defeat but in the perfection of the character of its participants." -- Gichin Funakoshi[/font][/font]

 

[Lisa]

Ya know the old saying about how you can't make everybody happy all of the time? What about the one about the squeeky wheel getting the grease? Well that will be very true in this case regardless of weather the rep system is on or off. People are going to complain when it is on and people are going to complain to you for turning it off and wonder why all of a sudden it is being done so. If a few bad apples are going to win, that is really sad. I understand that it has to be a headache, and I can only imagine how absolutely frustrating and miserable it must be to constantly be inundated with complaints but... something that, like you said, should be fun and the majority of us took it as such, should not be cancelled because of them.

I say make it mandatory to put your name on your reps. I think the rep system is good for the most part. Pos rep encourages newbies to participate and neg reps, if used properly, can make one reflect on their posts, hopefully growing as a person, otherwise it weeds out the trolls.

Bob, I truly hope you reconsider.

just another .02 in the pile.

Lisa

 

[shesulsa]

I feel that the removal of the rep system will help keep personal ideological differences between members off the forums and in priviate, either via PM or email or instant messenger.

I hope for the staff's sake that you're correct. I think what may actually happen is posts will go up as will traffic and we'll see more single-line posts such as "I agree." or "That's just not right." or "**** you, you ****ing *****" which would cause a moderation nightmare, of course.

 

[Andrew Green]

- Remove the system completely

Nah, bending over for troublemakers is not the way to go

- Force commenter ID (meaning your name will be visible)

Umm, I'm torn, I like the annonymity for the most part. when giving +/-. Otherwise you'll just get back and forth stuff.

- Allow only Positive Rep.

Idiots need to be informed of there being idiots I think the rep system and the negatives that can come are as important as the positives, as it makes people think twice about what they are posting (Granted it doesn't work too well on me...)

- Allow anyone positive rep, but only supporting members or above can neg-rep

.

Same as above, negative is just as important.

- Disallowing comments all together. Just + or -

That one I like. Maybe some balance as well. Some people seem to have too much influence. Maybe put a cap on how much people can give, or reduce how much they give if they keep giving to the same person.

So if someone gives 10, next time they would give 5 or something, going down each time. This would prevent one or two people from heavily influencing someone.

Restore the ability to give to the same person over time instead of all at once. So after 10 days they can give 50%, after 20 days 75%, 30-days 100%... Might be a lot of work to implement though...

Maybe different times for different membership levels? Mods can go again after 10 days and 10 people, supporting members 15, regular 20?


Personally I have doubts about the value of the system, but I think if it does get removed it shouldn't be because a few people are spoiling it.

 

[Sapper6]

i'd hate to see it go away. i'm with Shesulsa here: why "punish" all for the acts of a few? the rep system was a unique way to gauge forum contribution and i'd hate to see it removed because of childish antics.

removing the system is not going to prevent arguments, decrease bickering, etc. it will only take up a different form, and that form will most likely not be limited to PM, IM, or other "offline" methods. the frustration that is usually vented via negative dings will now take place in topic discussion, which only makes things worse.

the rep system was fair. i would like to see it reinstated. to the people who whine about anonymous neg rep, suck it up and stop being a wuss. such is apart of the game. we've all gotten anonymous dings at one time or another and i've only seen a select few actually cry about it.

reinstate the feature and punish those who abuse it, period.

how about a poll? i know this isn't a democraticly run forum. it's yours Bob, do with it what you wish. i just wouldn't want to see a good feature flushed because of idiocy, immaturity, and BS.

 

[shesulsa]

Sapper, I was gonna rep you for that post, but ... well, you know .... :ultracool

 

[Sapper6]

Sapper, I was gonna rep you for that post, but ... well, you know .... :ultracool

same here.

i guess we'll have to be content with virtual rep. :ultracool

 

[Andrew Green]

One more thought that might be easier to implement:

How about setting up a new user group for people allowed to give rep? Only put people in it that are not likely to abuse it and remove immediately if they do. This could be for giving positive and negative.

Supporting members, mentors, mods, and anyone else deemed "trustworthy".

 

[Lisa]

Sapper, I was gonna rep you for that post, but ... well, you know ....

same here.

i guess we'll have to be content with virtual rep. :ultracool

see the love? feel the love?

The reputation abuse should be dealt with on an individual basis just like on the board. You abuse the rules and regulations, you get your ability to rep someone taken away. Plain and simple.

 

[mantis]

The Reputation system has been temporarily disabled due to a few bad apples abusing it. While most of our members used it responsibly and as intended, a few have been using it to insult, demean, belittle and otherwise abuse it.

In addition to the abuse, the constant complaints, several bordering on whining from a few individuals guilty of the same abuse they complain about has gotten tiring.

As a result, I have taken that feature off line while I consider options.

They are:
- Remove the system completely
- Force commenter ID (meaning your name will be visible)
- Allow only Positive Rep.
- Allow anyone positive rep, but only supporting members or above can neg-rep.
- Disallowing comments all together. Just + or -

The system was intended to be something fun, a nice way to reward those who contribute and nudge those who don't. Instead, it's been a headache. I will be looking into the matter this week and seeing what I can do to possibly return this feature to use, while minimizing abuse and headaches.

Thank you.

off topic
just wondering (you probably wont answer, but why not give it a try)
how do enable/disable features? do you have like a meta-data table that controls access? juz wondering

 

[dubljay]

off topic
just wondering (you probably wont answer, but why not give it a try)
how do enable/disable features? do you have like a meta-data table that controls access? juz wondering

No worries about off topic. There is a supporting member featuer at a cost of $12 per year that goes to help cover the costs of running the forum. One of the benifits of being a supporting member was (is) the ability to turn rep points on and off. There are many other benifits of becoming a supporting member that are outlined here.

 

[mantis]

No worries about off topic. There is a supporting member featuer at a cost of $12 per year that goes to help cover the costs of running the forum. One of the benifits of being a supporting member was (is) the ability to turn rep points on and off. There are many other benifits of becoming a supporting member that are outlined here.

oh
my question is beyond that
i was actually asking from a technical perspective. I do programming too, so i was wondering about the interface between the backend the php...
and thats why its way off topic! haha
thank you though

 

[arnisador]

I hope for the staff's sake that you're correct. I think what may actually happen is posts will go up as will traffic and we'll see more single-line posts such as "I agree." or "That's just not right." or "**** you, you ****ing *****" which would cause a moderation nightmare, of course.

I think that there'll be a little of that, but then things will settle back down. We'll also lose the plethora of posts wherein someone replies in-thread to an anonymous ding, starting a chorus of sympathy.

I've gotten the odd ding and it's occasionally affected my posts. But frankly, many people seem to use it as a quick version of a PM--at least with me. This includes not just the "I agree" lines but much more to the point the actual personal messages that should've been sent by PM. It functioned as PM wit the possibility of omitting the name.

People--myself included--would occasionally use it to send messages that would be unpopular if posted, but again, this just duplicates the PM system, with anonymity. I like the anonymity option--it forces the person to think about the message rather than the messenger. I suspect that some of the complaints were valid complaints of harassment and some were complaints about being exposed to a different point of view without having someone to argue it with!

I think on balance you'll see less grief without it. By the way, you and I are now tied for most rep.!

 

[Andrew Green]

I'd guess there is a Admin control panel that controls what features are on and off as well as all the settings related to them

Anyways, if you are curious get your computer running Apache, MySQL and PHP, download and install Simple Machines or PHPBB and play with it. Source is available to you as both are written in php.

There are other forums you can download, but those are two of the better free ones.