OT - How does Reputation work?

[Brianwarnock]

Oftimes the posters leave rep comments which are, themselves, a great form of appreciation. It makes up for the many times when you help folks and don't even get a response to your answer.

And of course, sometimes the enjoyment is in the satisfaction of solving the puzzle itself (at least for me). It keeps the brain from atrophying too much

I totally agree with this, as I've said on a different thread when questioned about still being here when retired, solving these problems sure beats SuDoKu

Brian

 

[boblarson]

solving these problems sure beats SuDoKu

Taking out the trash ALSO beats SuDoKu.

 

[rainman89]

Is that fair to the other posters, is the system really a bit of a joke?

Brian

if its a joke. im not laughing......

 

[CraigDolphin]

solving these problems sure beats SuDoKu

That's funny....I've said exactly the same thing when my wife asked me why I /like/ doing db design

 

[ajetrumpet]

That's funny....I've said exactly the same thing when my wife asked me why I /like/ doing db design

Way to sidestep that landmine Craig!!

 

[CraigDolphin]

Ok...back to this because I'm pretty sure there's some other problem with the reputation thingie. Or someone has shifted the criteria up way too high recently.

I would like to think that if you get positive reputation from someone with a postcount over 300 posts you'd at least get one point. As it turns out, apparently not! It's a bit weird because I have previously received rep points from posters with much lower postcounts (>50 but <100).

 

[boblarson]

The problem lies in that the person that gave you rep, Craig, only has 1 rep point themselves (even though they have that many posts). I believe that they need at least 10 (which is what you start with when you become a member). So this person has been receiving, or has received negative rep in the past and therefore they aren't eligible to give rep. Sorry -

 

[CraigDolphin]

Ok...I'll quit whinging now

 

[ajetrumpet]

(>50 but <100)

I believe the correct syntax is:

(>50 [B][color=red]AND[/color][/B] <100)

 

[Brianwarnock]

Sorry to bring this thread up again but I have realised another problem with this rep thing, instead of positive feedback on the thread , which can be useful to people searching for answers, posters are adding, or trying to add , to my reputation.
Another negative for the rep systemIMHO.

Brian

 

[CraigDolphin]

I believe the correct syntax is:

(>50 [B][color=red]AND[/color][/B] <100)

I stand corrected

...instead of positive feedback on the thread ...

I think the rep thing is supposed to be aimed at tracking the reps of individual people, but a thread recommendation rating system could also be very helpful. Not sure if such a thing exists on the software they use here though.

It's the usual story, build an app with an optional add-on as an afterthought and suddenly all the users want to extend it beyond the scope of the original contract

 

[Rabbie]

It seems that new members dont add any reputation points when they click the scales icon. Surely these are the very people that receive advice and can judge best what has helped them.

 

[fearoffours]

OK this has been bugging me slightly for a while.

I regularly give reputation points, as soon as I find a hepful post, even old ones from the archives, that have pointed me towards something.

I also only post a message if I feel I have something worth saying - if it adds to what is already in the thread.

This means that despite being around for a month now, because I choose not to flood the boards unnecessarily, my reputation points mean nothing.
Now I admit to having accidentally de-repped someone when I meant to rep them (I have reported this and trust it is in hand), and because of that one instance I am pleased that my reputation adjustments count for nothing. However, I have repped a lot of people countless times and am annoyed that it seems to be meaningless. I'm beginning to think that instead of adding to someone's reputation I should just post a message in the thread saying how much it helped me, though this will mean resurrecting years-old threads. And in most cases it will be nothing more than 'this post helped me with an identical problem' - not much help to anyone else reading the thread.

However, I am almost at my 50 posts now, so maybe I'kll go back and rerep anyone I can remember whose posts have helped in the past.

 

[boblarson]

Yeah, I know it can be a bit frustrating, and perhaps the setup is a bit whacked, but as I'm not positive about where the breakpoints are (I don't have access to those areas to find out), there is not much we can do. The intent that the software creators used was to keep someone from being able to register many times and give themselves points quickly, or have others have too much influence before they've been around awhile.

I would say that I am also one of those who, if all of the new posters that I have helped and have tried to add rep points, would have probably 10 times the number I do now. So, I can certainly empathize with everyone there. I pretty much have to just accept that I'm only going to get comments, not points, from those and every once in a while I get a point or two from someone who has either been here awhile, or has posted a lot and I finally answered a question for them or they decided to do the rep.

So, it is not perfect by any means. I wish there was a good way around it because I know that it is kind of disheartening to find out that you were trying to do good for someone but it turned out that it didn't do exactly what you thought it was going to do.

 

[fearoffours]

Good points Bob, it's difficult to get the balance between allowing newcomers to give reputation without abusing that facility.

 

[namliam]

Hey

What I would like to see is WHO gives the points?? Sometimes I get the feeling from the reactions attached to the points that it was not the person I directly helped but someone else.

Seeing who adds to your reputation can be worth while.... Not that the whole rep thing is that "valuable" IMHO, eventho it is a nice feature

 

[georgedwilkinson]

Sometimes I get the feeling from the reactions attached to the points that it was not the person I directly helped but someone else.

That is true. I've repped you recently for something you posted that I learned from, which is why I'm here. Not sure if you got points but, if you did, it was more than you would have gotten from the OP.

My biggest complaint is that you can only rep somebody every now and then (don't know how often). There are some people who I would rep every single day if I could.

 

[Banana]

The idea was to make sure two member didn't get into a lovefest orgy and rep themselves into god-like transcendency leaving mere mortals in dust. From what I can tell, you have to give it to three or five different people (this is a setting set by the administrator, I think) before you can give it to same person again.

So, spread the love to give more love is the basic message here.



Tangent-

Am I only one who thinks that newbie should be able to aware more reputation than crusty old farts? Seems to me they're one who stand to benefit the most, no?

 

[georgedwilkinson]

I'm sure I've given rep to at least 10 people and still can't give it to ones I've already given it to.

I understand why newbs can't rep...they have no stake, or could otherwise be used as a method of repping an "account" used by the same person to inflate their rep.

 

[Banana]

Ooo, I forgot about that tiny problem. Too bad, because I'm sure that 90% of points given were from newbies and thus were gray because their snots are still too wet on their nose. Had it been green, I'm sure we'd see a better indication of how helpful members were.