Markus

Quite a few people have asked how the User Reputation feature works, so I thought I'd create a new thread ("not another one about user reputation!" I hear you cry ) that has some of the details on the feature in one handy place (mods - any chance of making it a sticky?). I'm not claiming to be an expert on the system, I've just read a little on it, so if I have missed something out, or got it completely wrong, please feel free to correct or add to this thread.

How User Reputation Works

To the left of every post, beneath the user's name you will see this icon:
This is the User Reputation Icon. Clicking on on it displays a screen saying "What do yo think of XXXX's post?" (XXXX being the name of the user). You can select two options, "I approve" or "I disapprove". You can also, optionally, make a comment.

Each user starts with 10 reputation points. If you look under their username you can see a green or red image. When you hover your cursor over this image it will tell you what that user's current reputation is.

You can view your total reputation points by going to your User CP. You should see a "Latest Reputation Received" box, and on the far right it will display your total reputation points. As the name indicates, it will also display the last 20 posts belonging to you that other users have given you reputation on. A green image indicates positive reputation, a red image indicates negative reputation, whilst a grey image indicates that the reputation will not harm your reputation points. You will see the post that the user gave you reputation on, the date and time the reputation given and, optionally, the comment the user left. It should be noted that you do NOT see who gave you the reputation, though some users do leave their name as part of the comment so you can see who gave you the reputation.

If you give positive reputation to someone (using the "I approve" option) then their points will increase. If you give someone negative reputation (using the "I disapprove" option) then their points will decrease. The same applies to someone giving you reputation.

As your reputation points increase, so does your reputation power. Reputation power governs how many points are added to or subtracted from a users reputation points when you give them reputation. If a new user with few reputation points gives one of your posts reputation, then this will not alter your total reputation points to the same extent as if a user who has been registered for a long time.

What happens if your reputation falls below a certain level? It has been stated that if this happens then the Administrators will consider wether your account will be placed on a global ignore list, which means that from then onwards their posts, both past and present, will not be visible by any users. This currently appears to be manually performed by the Administrators, so, at present, you can still post if you have zero, or even a negative number of reputation points. It is possible this may change to an automatic system, but that is just speculation at this point.

If you want to know a little more about the how the system works then you might want to read this post from another forum. Note that it details how *that* forum has the User Reputation feature configured, the options on ScoobyNet are different, for example, your reputation power here is not based on your post count.

Bubba po

So fear not, everyone.

pslewis

Too complicated for an old fella like me ...................................

Ignored

Addendum:

You appear to have omitted a very important point...

The 'level' at which the chuckle brothers will 'consider whether your account will be placed on a global ignore list' is also unpublished and completely arbitrary.

Edited to add: I am currently on -7. Farcical, no?

Brendan Hughes

Who said that?

Bubba po

bttt

Jerome

Markus and Ignored,

Just given you both positive blobs. Didn't seem to make much difference to your scores though.

To all,

Having met Markus, I know what kind of person he is. The amount of stick, not to mention negs, Markus gets is ridiculous. Some may think he goes on a bit, but that hardly warrants the negs. He is actually trying to help the SN "community", so give the guy a break.

PS: If you're ever in Toronto, he knows some excellent curry houses!

Markus

Jerome,
Cheers matey I owe you dinner and a few pints when you're next over this way.

2000TLondon

What happens when the trolls like PSLEWIS use all of their accounts to add dozens and dozens of reputation points to each account, and therefore one "person" with a hundred aliases will command the reputation system?

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

markus

I will be pointing a green point to you sir, for a well doumented post.
Hope that everyone is now crystal clear on this subject

cottonfoo

It'll be obvious to the admins who's doing that, checks can even be automated. One would hope that being caught doing something as shameful as that would embarass people out of doing it in the first place.

Paul3446

Without wishing to be too cynical, how has PS Lewis managed to get a +50 rating?

paulr

Because a lot of people think he adds humour to the board.

SJ_Skyline

Pete's a star, like him or loathe him he's one of the people that keeps Scoobynet entertaining

paulr

The "stars" are the people who fall for his wind ups,Pete is just great at fanning the flames.........

jasey

. And he's very careful who he "picks" on

davegtt

Thanks

Boro

iTrader: (1)

Isnt it to the left?

Lol, sorry, you did say feel free to correct :P

pslewis

For the FINAL time ..... I have NO alias accounts ...... could a Mod put this idea to bed??

How the hell could I amass 18,900 posts????

And I like to think I have got 50+ because more people enjoy my posts than don't

GrahamG

The mods will know if you do... but if you use more then 1 pc its a little harder to tack posting IP's

Markus

Quite correct, have now amended it

carl

I see a flaw here.

If you end up on the "Blanket Ignore" list, there is no way to get off it. Nobody can see your current or historical posts, so no-one can give you positive reputation.

scoobydooooo

how the hell did some people get 2 green spots with 150 + when the system has only been going for 2 minutes ??

Markus

It's not a flaw, that's what the list is there for. As mentioned above, inclusion on this list is not yet automatic. If you get on the list then it'll be because the administrators want you there in the first place. As the system is not automatic, even if your reputation falls to negative levels you can still post.


It's down to how the system works. There are two factors, reputation points and reputation power. We all started off with 10 points, however, your reputation power is based on not only on your current reputation (how many points you have) but also on your registration date. Thus someone who has been her since, say, March 1999, and has 10 points, would have more reputation power than another user with 10 points who has only been registered since April 2006.

When someone gives reputation to another user, their current reputation (points) and power are used to calculate how many points are given (if it's positive reputation) or taken away (if it's negative reputation) from the user they are reputating.

Lets say there are two users, Bob and Fred, who have 10 points and have been registered for the same length of time, say around April 2000. If Bob gives positive reputation to Fred, then due to the current reputation and power, Fred ends up with a total of say 15 points. This would indicate that the calculations behind the system worked out Bob's power allowed him to give 5 points to Fred. This increases Fred's points, but also increases his power. So if Fred decides that he wants to thank Bob, and gives him positive reputation back, then it's likey that Bob will end up with say 17 points.
Why 17 and not 15? It's because Fred's points and power were increased when Bob gave him the reputation, thus when Fred gives reputation he'll give (or take away) more points from the other person.

At this point Bob and Fred cannot give any more reputation to each other until they have given reputation to a number (unknown value at this point) of other users.

For arguments sake, let us say that Bob and Fred have 10 other friends, so in total, either one of them knows 11 people. Let us also assume a value of 10 for the "cannot give reputation to same user until reputation has been given to 10 other users" option.

What this means is that Bob can go and give positive reputation to his 10 other friends. After doing that, he's now given reputation (be it good or bad, does not matter) to a totall of 11 people, this puts him over the limit of 10 unique people, thus he is free to give repuation back to Fred.

Now, whilst Bob has been giving out rep to his friends, Fred has been doing exactly the same, as have the other 10 people. All the while they have been giving out positive reputation, so their points and power have been growing.

When Bob gives reputation to Fred again, he ends up giving not 5 points, but 10 points, because his total number of points and reputation power have been increased by all the other positive reputation he's been given by the other users.

As you can see from the above, it's pretty simple, and quick to gain quite a few points if a group of users work together as it were.

If you then factor in that anyone can give reputation to anyone else, then the "group" becomes rather large and that's how people end up with a large number of points.

scoobydooooo

what a load of ba**s ,could they have made it a bit more complicated

Markus

bump

Alan Partridge

Clear and concise

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

A......................HA

Boro

iTrader: (1)

So, after all of that, what exactly is the point of it?

Markus

Meta-moderation. Give negative reputation to users who you feel are acting like trolls. If everyone does this then the theory goes, the admins will see that user X has a large negative reputation and puts them on the ignore list, so we are then all free from seeing their posts.

This is of course ignoring the whole issue of the troll registering a new name and trolling again, which does slightly defeat the purpose of the system.

Bottom line, I think it's here so we can actively do something, rather than just (or as well as) using the report bad post option and waiting for the moderators to remove the offending post, and possibly escalting things so the user is put on the ignore list/banned.