Reputation - Stay or Go

[Nielo]

Hi Ronald
Please get shot of 'reputation' it is proving to be not only confusing but also a bit silly.

You often extol members to behave as adults so please treat us as such and realise we don't need sweeties.

Every one who is a regular user of this forum knows who are the people who's posts are accurate and informative and a line of little green blocks won't change that. Furthermore new people may be deluded by the 'reputation' and put their faith where it is not deserved.

[juliancoll]

I don't know why it's there IMO much easier to press a grazie button if you like a post, who needs a reputation, it's a forum not a C.V - or is Ronni really that chap from the apprentice - Alan Sugar - Wrong spelling, prob. but it is late.

[AllanMason]

Originally Posted by Nielo

Every one who is a regular user of this forum knows who are the people who's posts are accurate and informative and a line of little green blocks won't change that. Furthermore new people may be deluded by the 'reputation' and put their faith where it is not deserved.

It seems to me there is - in principle - an argument for some indication of how reputable a particular member is.

It is true that, as you say, regular users get to know after a while which members are truly knowledgeable. But it seems to me that an indication of reputation might be helpful to people who just drop in to look for help on a specific topic. (Then again, you could question if strangers would even notice the reputation feature...)

Having said that, it is the case that the Reputation indicator is not currently reflecting my personal opinions of who's reputable and who isn't: there are members with a base Reputation level who I consider very knowledgeable and whose posts I think are always worth reading, and conversely there are members with several blocks who I think rarely contribute much of any real value.

I'm not clear on how the algorithm for calculating Reputation works, so I don't know if, in time, the little blocks will shift around to reflect something close to my opinions about members and their contributions. Perhaps the way Reputation is determined would need to be radically changed before the points coincided with my views. Or perhaps the points could never match my perceptions because they are fundamentally at odds with the reality of just how reputable some people here are.

Al

[Gala Placidia]

I posted this opinion under a different thread, but I insist, those reputation marks could detract from the real reason for participating in the Forum, which is to contribute with something. I said before that I was not going to use the reputation scales and I have not done it; however, I still like the "grazie" button as it allows us to thank somebody whose post is helpful to us or to other people without needing to write a full message.

[deborahandricky]

What about adding an AGREE button, that would maybe show that the thread / reply is correct ( if only in common knowledge )

[pigro]

it's pretty simple. The reputation mechanism is fine if implemented as envisaged by the software designers - that is, with the ability to remove as well as add reputation. So, you see someone who you feel has contributed something of value (not just knowledge, maybe humour or patience or whatever) and you give them some reputation. Conversely, you see someone wasting their own and everyone elses time and you remove reputation. Wouldn't take long until the reputation did what it said on the tin - shows anyone interested enough to view it whether the peer group on the forum value the opinion of a given person. I personally think that would be very useful if I were coming here with no prior knowledge, asked a question, and got several conflicting opinions in response.

Ronald said that he decided to disable the "remove reputation" bit because he foresaw it causing arguments - and therefore would sidetrack the forum away from content and toward bickering etc.

Nicely ironic then to see that despite Ron's caution, people are now debating the reputation feature all over the forum :-)

[Aretina]

Hi Ronald

Totally agree with Nielo, we don't need the reputation 'grades'. Most of us are adult enough not to need constant reaffirmation. It seems to be making the blog. 'competitive' for the wrong reasons and maybe this is why there appears to have been a falling off of old users and new threads of significant content.

I am sure that most forum users will take any advice given etc. with care and follow it up.

The grazie button is great - it does what it says!!!

[Nielo]

QUOTE=ronald;85595]
hello all - back from Dolce Vita a and ready to pick up the progress on the forums.

Nielo - thanks for the review. My take is that some tools are not too harmful don't cost too much too maintain so might as well keep them rather than not. Those who like them use them those who don't dont. That would be Groups and Friends for me.

Tags I think are fantastic but that is more about how I am used to use the web - some don't care some love them so we might as well keep them.

Reputation, on the other hand, is something that might get in the way of normal forum usage (even just because people wonder what those bars are). Also it is quite complicated etc so might become more of a nuisance than a positive - I suggest a poll on that to decide whether to keep it or not.
[/quote]


Ronald there are now two polls which reflect the voters opinion on the reputation function, I think both show quite clearly that what you feel about reputation is echoed by forum users.

I would be grateful to hear from you as to whether you intend making any changes, if not we can all save our energy.

I would have added a smiley but they seem to have disappeared in this instance.

[Sally Donaldson]

Do have a closer look Nielo. It seems Ronald has acted and the blue scales have vanished as has the reputation green blocks.

[juliancoll]

Smilies are much more useful.