rep thread (dont kill me)

[UTEpee]

ok, so at the risk of being tarred and feathered.........
whats the deal with rep points? i assume it has something to do with the green dots below your name? how does one get more green dots? whats the largest number of green dots one may accumulate? should we have rep contests?


i now open this thread for any questions/rips/rants/etc
share your feelings on rep!!


.......aaaaaaannd go

[noodle]

i edited my copy of my faq, here's the updated rep question:

Originally Posted by noodle

Fencing101.com Questions

• How does the Fencing.net Discussion Board Reputation system work?
  

  
  A new registrant to the forum has the starting option to rate a member +1 reputation points. For every 180 days you've been registered, you gain +1 reputation-altering points. For every 500 posts you gain +1 reputation-altering points. For every 100 points of reputation you have achieved, you get +1 reputation-altering points.
  
  You must have at least 50 posts to rate. You must have a minimum reputation of 10. You may only rate 20 posts within a 24-hour limit. You cannot rate the same person twice until you rate at least 15 others.
  
  To view your reputation, click on the "User Tools" drop down menu and subsequently click on the "User Control Panel" link, or click on the "User CP" link; both of which can be found in the upper left corner of any page. This page should list any reputation one has recieved. Red dots indicate a negative reputation change which can only be given out by forum administrators, green dots indicate a positive reputation change, and grey dots indicate reputation has not changed but someone attempted to change your reputation but did not have the ability to do so as defined above.
  
  To give someone else reputation, click a small graphic at the bottom left-hand corner of every post which looks like a check and an x. Add any comments you wish the person to see (these are anonymous by default), and click "Add to Reputation".
  

now somewhat dated source thread
i'll add something about the number of green dots. one green dot means a person has a reputation between 0 and 99. two is between 100 and 199, three is between 200 and 299, etc.

this one's also good, though we no longer have negative reputation, you can still get the gist of it:

Originally Posted by noodle

rules of thumb for rep:

1. the more inane the post, the more likely you are to get some type of reputation change.
   1. if the post contains something totally offtopic or totally nonsensical, raises bad rep odds
   2. if the post contains pop culture reference, raises bad rep odds
   3. if the post contains negative statements targetted at a person, raises bad rep odds (notable exception: nick evangelista)
   4. singular posts on controvertial topics raise bad rep odds
   5. if the post is reasonably linked to the topic in some form and rules a, b, c, or d do not apply, raises good rep odds
2. the more informative the post, the less likely you are to get reputation
   
   1. if the post is directed to specifically answer someone's question in a timely fashion, raises good rep odds
   2. humor does not increase good rep odds unless coupled with rule 1
   3. multiple posts on controvertial topics lower bad reputation odds until negligible.

source thread

[Louweasel]

I have three rep dots because I am wonderful. Ask anyone!

[Insipiens]

Originally Posted by Louweasel

I have three rep dots because I am wonderful. Ask anyone!

surely it is because you "have a spectacular aura about you" ?

[InweCiryatan]

Grrr, I am so close, so very, very close to having two green dots Don't you hate it when people give you rep points without saying why?

[oiuyt]

Another thing to note is that the text displayed on-mouseover of the rep dots (rest your cursur over the dots of anyone) changes every 100 rep on the 50's. So you start with one dot and a the message "username is on a distinguished road". Once your rep passes 50 you still have one dot but the message changes to "username will become famous soon enough". Pass 100 rep and you add a second dot without a change of message. Hit 150 and the message changes again to "username has a spectacular aura about". 200 means a third dot. 250 changes the message to "username is a jewel in the rough". 300 means a fourth dot. 350 means "username is just really nice". 400 is a fifth dot. 450 is "username is a glorious beacon of light". 500 is a sixth dot. Meave-Mari is the current rep points leader and is somewhere in the 500-550 range so we don't (well, the we not including Craig or other people that have played with other similar fora or forum software) know what happens beyond that point.

Also, while Noodle's guidelines are reasonable, I officially (self-declared) don't get how people on the board award rep. Tons of posts that are exact answers to non-trivial questions go unrewarded. Photoshopped pics of Gav with boobies get massively rewarded. Many of the people near the top of the rep list are most notable for posting nearly exclusively in the water cooler and rarely posting particularly noteworthy or useful fencing information.

I've had some of my posts that I thought were merely slightly useful information get rewarded by multiple people and others that actually provided a fair amount of relatively non-generally available but useful information get completely ignored rep-wise. Just not much system that I can figure.

Hope that helps.
-B :)

[oiuyt]

Originally Posted by Louweasel

I have three rep dots because I am wonderful. Ask anyone!

:jester:

Louweasel is wonderful.

-B :)

[Gav]

I've actually wonderd whether it would be more useful if rep only counted when gained in the Fencing or Armoury sections - any thoughts?

Not having configured the software I don't know if that is possible - although that sort of thing generally is.

[Craig]

Gav,

Interesting idea. Since you can't "do" anything with the rep points, they are just there to encourage people to ask "what are these things" and "how can I get some of them"...

As oiuyt has pointed out, the "market" that has been made with the points is drastically different than what would be the most useful application within the forum.

Craig

[oiuyt]

"antoher uselss point award for you whiny but" worth 5 rep points for my first post in this thread.

I suppose I can at least be happy that there was a comment. Otherwise I might be tempted to think that whoever boosted my rep actually thought my post had some worthwhile content. :eyeroll: :)

-B :)

[noodle]

Originally Posted by oiuyt

"antoher uselss point award for you whiny but" worth 5 rep points for my first post in this thread.

I suppose I can at least be happy that there was a comment. Otherwise I might be tempted to think that whoever boosted my rep actually thought my post had some worthwhile content. :eyeroll:

-B

sigh, theres the system having at it again, proof of how it works... i answer the question quickly and thoroughly and i get no love; you get rep not for the solid info you gave, but because of the whining you did about the system

[latenight]

I hate getting rep

[Go? Fencing?]

Why? *resists urge to give rep*

[MyrddinsPrecint]

Originally Posted by oiuyt

I've had some of my posts that I thought were merely slightly useful information get rewarded by multiple people and others that actually provided a fair amount of relatively non-generally available but useful information get completely ignored rep-wise. Just not much system that I can figure.

A lot of the time, i'll give rep to someone for some random reason--- they amused me, they were actually useful, whatever....

and then they do something even better--- but i've given rep to them very recently-- or at least recently enough so that i can't give it to them that soon.

i would go back and give them rep later, but i'm not going to remember to do that......

[latenight]

Originally Posted by Go? Fencing?

Why? *resists urge to give rep*

Oh, I just detest it......it ruins my beautiful dark and dreary day.

[UTEpee]

to the moderators contemplating no rep in water cooler.....
this may be the only place for some (such as me) to earn rep due to my lack of armory knowledge and poor fencing skills

[mrbiggs]

Originally Posted by UTEpee

to the moderators contemplating no rep in water cooler.....
this may be the only place for some (such as me) to earn rep due to my lack of armory knowledge and poor fencing skills

I think that their point is that people who don't have much fencing/armory knowledge shouldn't have alot of rep points.

Not that I'm a perfect example of how someone who doesn't have much knowledge can have alot of rep from a sense of humor and a huge number of posts.

[achilleus]

I'd be disappointed if rep points actually fulfilled a useful function besides humor. I occasionally check my rep just for laughs.

My favorite one to date was a rep point with the comment of how they wished they could give me negative rep, and how I was a moron who couldn't see the genius of another.

I still laugh over that one when I read it.

[UTEpee]

yea, thats what i was after, looking back, it was worded rather poorly and my sarcasm wasnt very evident

[CvilleFencer]

I have suggested/whined a few times now that you should not be able to gain rep points in any section other than the Armoury or Fencing sections of the board. Newer fencers coming into the forum and asking purposeful questions may look at the rep system when trying to judge the quality or accuracy of the response. If the questions was "how can I keep my epee tip contact spring in place" and one of the "water cooler brats" happened to be cruising through looking for some fun they might reply something like "Fill the point of your epee with super glue and let it dry overnight". Their post would sound and look to the uninformed as if it were coming from a more accurate/qualified person than DHC, PurpleFencer or even me! That’s just not right, and I think it is a bit of an abuse of the system.

While Craig may not have intended the rep points system to be used for anything, he did enable it on the software... Since it is in use doing something to make it worthwhile/useful or just turning it off would seem to be the decent thing to do. I think it could be another valuable tool for new members to the fencing.net community if it were more representative than it is now.