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My fear is that this whole reputation thing has turned into more of a popularity contest then anything else. A person with lots of green dots next to their name is more likely to receive additional green dots.
In my opinion this forums has become a giant popularity contest. In the past few years I have realized that FIRST is, in many ways, very different from what I thought I had gotten involved with. I find this very disappointing.
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I've never been angry and shot from the hip on these forums... I guess there's a first time for everything.
Let's take a look at the top 5 people with the most reputation on these forums:
Andy Baker
JVN
Dave Lavery
Ken Leung
Joe Johnson
These guys have a lot of reputation points. You know why? Because these five individuals consistantly write concise, sincere, worthwhile, timely, and intelligent posts on a wide variety of topics, sharing a lot of mature insight, including some incredible technical knowledge. They've been around for a long while.
Are the popular? You bet! Why? Because they're honest, sincere people who try to better this online community. What's not to like? They have an immense amount of respect from the people on these boards because of their contributions.
Popularity in high school is a different thing than in real life, and is much different than among the gracious professionals in FIRST. These people are wildly "popular" because they're honest and fun people, not for the superficial reasons that people tend to be popular in high school.
I've heard people in this thread consistantly whine about how they've been around on CD and think they deserve more reputation dots then they have.
Here's the blunt truth:
If you don't have a ton of green dots by your name, you probably don't deserve them.
I feel really humbled that people take the time via leaving some reputation points to let me know that I posted something worthwhile. I'm not in some exclusive circle of five people who exchange reputation points on a nightly basis. As a matter of fact, of the last 24 reputation comments I've received, they've come from 21 different members.
To further the point that this system isn't some sort of exclusive club, I only came on these boards 4 months ago and have met no more than 6 or 7 people outside of my team who post regularly on these boards. I don't have nearly the well founded history that the vast majority of people with high reputation do.
At risk of sounding arrogant - I am a case in point example that anyone who takes the time to post worthwhile, informative posts can rise up among the ranks of the reputation system on these forums.
Are you really concerned about increase the overall respect and reputation that you convey on these forums, (in the form of green dots or otherwise)? Here's a hint: Speak clearing about worthwhile topics that will help other people.
If you're going to sit around in the chit chat forums all day (which is perfectly fine) talking about the weather or other random topics, don't expect people to flood your box with green dots about how much they appreciate knowing that you spotted a Segway on your favorate NBC sitcom.
This is how the system is. Deal with it, or offer worthwhile improvements.
Don't complain that FIRST isn't really all it's cracked up to be or accuse the people who have worked hard within this community and have a lot reputation points simply have them because they're "popular" among some nonexistant clique.
Let's move on,
Matt