Reputations

[The Barrow-Wight]

Some of you have already noticed that we have activated the Reputation system of the Downs. If you haven't, look on any post on the forum, and you'll see a small icon beneath the name of each poster (right after the number of posts that member has). Hovering the mouse over that small icon will reveal that member's reputation on the Downs. Everyone starts out with the the reputation of "<member> has started on the path to adventure"

Looking below the Reputation icon, you'll notice another new icon in the shape of a scale. Hovering your mouse over it reveals the message "Add to <member's> Reputation." Clicking the icon brings up a small window where you can do one of two things: (1) Approve of the post; or (2) disapprove of the post. Both options allow you to add a comment stating why you made the choice you did.

As you can see, the idea is to rate the post, not the member. Your rating of the post, postive or negative, will affect that members reputation up or down. As reputations change, the Reputation messsage changes.

Please don't abuse the Reputation system. Don't use it as a way to play games or disrespect each other. Instead, use it to give your true opinion of the posts you rate. In doing so, you will give people a better idea of what we'd like to see on the Downs.

Thanks!

[The Barrow-Wight]

You can see the reputations you have received, along with their comments, in your User CP. This means that user can see what rating you give to their posts!

[piosenniel]

Will we have the opportunity of choosing to turn off the 'Reputation' function?

[The Barrow-Wight]

No, you will not be able to turn off the reputation feature for now. Unless the system becomes widely abused, we want it active so people can see what others think of their posts. Though the system is designed to make misuse quite difficult, if such a thing does happen and we are unable to control it (by censuring the abusers) we may consider allowing people to turn it off in the future, but I don't forsee the need for that.

[The Barrow-Wight]

I just noticed that by clicking the scale icon on one of your own posts you can see how many reputation points you have. It will also indicate if you are negative, even, or positive for that particular post.

[Eruwen]

I have a question about the reputation points. I know people give you your reputation, but on all of my posts it says that I have 14 reputation points and that the post is even. Even on posts that I just got done posting, it says that. Does the number of points ever change?

[The Barrow-Wight]

Even means just what it says, not postive or negative. That means no one has rated the post OR the total ratings for your post equal zero. On brand new posts, even obviously means no one has rated it yet.

[Elennar Starfire]

You can see the reputations you have received, along with their comments, in your User CP.

How do you do that? I couldn't figure it out.

[Imladris]

Click on the User CP and scroll to the bottom (after the list of threads you've recently posted on). If you have Reputation, there will be a box that says "Latest Reputation Received." If you don't have any, that box won't be there.

Cheers!
Istawen

[The Saucepan Man]

This means that user can see what rating you give to their posts!

Does that mean that people can see which member commented on their thread? I think that Sharkû posted on the Questions thread that the system was not anonymous, but I can't find any indication of who has made the comments in the Reputation Box in my User CP.

For those who haven't discovered it, you can check out who's who in the Reputation stakes by going to the Member List and clicking on "Reputation" so as to order the list by Reputation. (Of course, I wouldn't have pointed that out if I hadn't been lying in fifth place. )

[Mister Underhill]

It turns out that ratings are anonymous, except for Admins. Only the Barrow knows...

[symestreem]

The little green icon doesn't work for me. Will it only work with certain browsers? I have Safari 1.0. It seems to work fine in Internet Explorer 5.2.

[The Barrow-Wight]

The little green icon doesn't do anything. Click the scale icon to give reuptation ratings.

[symestreem]

The little green icon's not supposed to do anything? I thought if you hovered your mouse over it, it was supposed to to the little pop-up thingy with people's reputation phrases. That's what I'm asking about.

[The Barrow-Wight]

Ah, sorry... the icon does have hover text. That's true. Maybe it's something in your settings. All of those icon have ALT text, and perphas your browser has an option to turn those on or off?

[Lyta_Underhill]

I suppose the thing I don't get is the points scale. I am told I have 17 points and I have two entries in my reputations area in User CP, but I do not know how many points are allotted to each, nor how to control the number of points given when rating another user's post. Perhaps there is a default number that is entered when you choose to approve or disapprove? And I am supposing this point count is cumulative? I am a little unclear on how many points equal "approval" and how many equal "disapproval" and how to tell on individual entries how many points go with them. It also tells me I have started on the path to adventure, but some have "username is getting the hang of it." I guess these users have more points than I do. I suppose I'll "get the hang of it" eventually!

Cheers!
Lyta

[Lindolirian]

I tried to rate NightKngiht on some questions he asked in the Quiz Room and it gave me this:
Quote:
You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to NightKnight again.

Just out of curiosity, how much reputation do I have "to spread" before I can rate one person again? Evidently this is not something to be used on every post you may like or dislike...

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Lyta, we cannot choose how many points we give on the reputation function - a user has points based on various factors, including her/his own reputation. A click will give whatever rating "weight" I have to give.

[The Saucepan Man]

Just out of curiosity, how much reputation do I have "to spread" before I can rate one person again? Evidently this is not something to be used on every post you may like or dislike...

I don't know the answer to the first question, but it seems a fair principle to me. First, it helps prevent people working together to "bump up" each other's Reputation. And secondly, it emphasises the point that Reputation is not to be given just for any old post that may take your fancy or state an opinon with which you agree (just as it should not be taken away simply because you disagree with a post).

Reputation should only be awarded in respect of those posts which you find particularly insightful, helpful, well argued, well written, witty etc. In this regard, it's worth filling out the reason for approving (or disapproving) a post, since identifying what exactly it is that you like about a thread will help you in working out whether it really merits a Reputation boost (and it will also tell the recipient exactly what he/she is doing right (or wrong)).

[Lindolirian]

Yes, I had originally thought it was some sort of "Hey that was a nice post" thing that you could give out whenever. Indeed I shall use this power wisely, now that I now what it is!

[Niluial]

I still don’t get it. If I click on my reputation scale it says you have 10 reputation points. Does this mean 10 people have given me a reputation on that one post or throughout the few weeks?

[Thorongil]

I guess the number of points is divided between the posts below the score. But it didn't say how many points there were for each rating.

[HerenIstarion]

10 points is the startup capital. I believe each additional positive rating brings along five more. But it should be checked with administration rather

[The Barrow-Wight]

The power of your reputation-giving goes up with your reputation and your time on the board (how long you have been a member). Older members have more reputation 'weight' than newer members, and those with high reputations have more 'weight' than people with lower reps. The weights are usually anywhere from 1 to 10 points, depending on the member, but people whose reputation drops below 0 have no weight at all and are wasting their time giving reputations. Stay above zero, or get above is you have already slipped.

[Imladris]

This question has been bugging me.

Please don't abuse the Reputation system. Don't use it as a way to play games or disrespect each other. Instead, use it to give your true opinion of the posts you rate. In doing so, you will give people a better idea of what we'd like to see on the Downs.

So what happens if somebody is obviously doing this? What do you do?

[The Barrow-Wight]

Tell one of the admins, and we'll check out.

[Thorongil]

Someone added to my reputation and the mark was blue. My points didn't go up or down. What was that?

[Fingolfin II]

Someone also added to my reputation and the box was grey. However, my points are still even also. What does this mean in terms of what the people rated me?

[The Barrow-Wight]

There are two colors of box: green and blue/grey. Green is positive and blue/grey is negative. In the case of both of you (Fingolfin II and Thorongil), a brand new member who has no reputation 'weight' has gone around giving reputations to everyone - with no comments. When I say that he has no weight, I mean that even though he is clicking the reputation button, his action does not add or subtract any points from you. Let me explain why.

The reputation system is well designed. It does not allow people to just indiscriminantly run around the forum changing peoples reputations. It has a series of rules that determine how often you can give reputations and how much weight you have. Let me explain weight.

Weight is the number of points that you can change someone else's reputation up or down. Each person 'weight' is determined by the following formula.

1 point for every 365 days you are a member
1 point for every 100 points of your own reputation
1 point for every 1000 posts

If you don't meet any of these criteria, you add 0 points when giving reputations and are wasting your time.

If your personal reputation falls below 0, you lose all reputation giving weight until your bring your reputation back up.

Translating all of this into English, you need to have been a member for a year, OR have at least 1000 posts, or have a 100 reputations points of your own if you want to give reputations points. Obviously, the easiest way for new members to get the power to give reputations is to get a good reputation. You do so by impressing others with good posts.

There are other rules:

1) You must have 50 posts on the forum before you can give reputations
2) You must have 10 reputations points of your own before you can give reputations
3) You must give reputation to 20 different people before coming back to the same person
4) You can only give 10 reputations a day



To the 'wizard' who is running around giving reputations and still hasn't posted once, you are wasting your time. Either discuss Middle-earth or find a new playground.

Sincerely
BW

[Thorongil]

Thanks for clearing it up. And it is better if people give a comment, so you know why, If it's positive or negative.

[mark12_30]

BW-- Thanks for the info.

Green is good; blue/grey is negative? Then what's red?

[The Barrow-Wight]

I hadn't realized there was a red. Since the blue/grey we were talking about before added 0 points, perhaps blue/grey is neutral and red is negative. The descriptions I gave were educated guess, because I didn't recall seeing the icons described on the documentation.

An amended description of the reputation icons:

high positive
positive
balanced / neutral (0 points?)
negative
high negative

[The Saucepan Man]

Thanks, BW. That's useful to know.

I have received three blue boxes with no comment, none of which affected my reputation count. Each of them relates to posts which really had nothing in them to either approve or disapprove of (particularly as two were simply setting questions in the Quiz Room). Since these were all received within a week, and given the rule about spreading reputation around, either there is more than one of these 'wizards' or he/she has been very busy indeed.

Also, can members with under 50 posts still approve/disapprove of posts (even though they cannot add or subtract reputation points in doing so)? If not, this 'wizard' cannot be a brand new member, since he or she must have at least 50 posts in order to be able to bring up a blue box in people's User CP.

[The Barrow-Wight]

I think it must be a flaw in the software that those people actually show up on your list. Optimally they would not even be able to open the reputation box, or at least their clicks would never register. But until vBulletin sends out a fix, we will continue to see when people are doing this.

In the meantime, I will contact people who are abusing the system and get them to stop.

[Amanaduial the archer]

Same as Saucepan Man - I have had two of these neutral reputation boxes with no comment within the last week. However, one of these had mysteriously vanished when I looked this morning.

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

You mean, I can't give reputation points to anybody???? I've not been around for a year, I don't have 1000 posts and I don't have 100 reputation points of my own -- so I'm a zero?

How depressing. I didn't know that. I've been trying to give reputation points to the posts I really love and it's all been for naught.

Ah well, it will be more inspiration to get my reputation points up there so I can no longer be a zero!

[The Barrow-Wight]

Fordim, at the rate you are going you should have 100 reputations points soon. Your good conversation is going to give you weight!

[Sharkû]

Also you start out with a weight of 1 as soon as you are able to give reputation (50 posts).

[HerenIstarion]

I can see the ratings I've got in my CP. Can I see also the list of posts I've given reputation to myself? Or may be such an option be added in the future?

[The Barrow-Wight]

No. Once you click the give reuptation button it is property of the person you gave it to. vBulletin is constantly upgrading their program, so perhaps some day they will make possible.