Reputation system..

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Zebra_Fact_Man

I find it funny to me that (with the exception of the guy above me) everyone posting in this thread has like a gajillion bars.
To me, this whole thread is like: "No, I don't pay any attention to the rep system" says the guy who's maxed out the rep system.

I guess it's like money: everybody wants it, but once you have it, you realize it doesn't really matter.

It's easy to see this statement as being valid from a certain point of view but you have to remember that even those who have a 'gajillion bars' have also had their share of red reps as well. No one is immune to being repped in a negative or a positive way, depending on the post being made. What (I think) a lot of the folks who have posted in this thread are saying to the OP is not to worry about the the gajillion bars too much. People realize when a poster is new to the forum and they recognize that it takes time to develop a reputation.

One thing that has been pointed out in other discussions but I haven't seen much of in this one is the fact that people join CD in the fall and very close to Kick Off. Kick Off is a busy time for FRC teams and CD becomes very noisy with lots and lots of posts regarding the rules and the new game and chatter. Typically, new members are very susceptible to being given red reps. I fall in the camp of being more tolerant with doling out the red reps and not so quick with hitting the button. That could be what some of the posts in this thread are talking about - some who have a lot of greenies try to help the new member who has received the red reps. Some new members stick around and become valuable CD participants. Some leave as quickly as they come. Some stick around and continue to make careless or obnoxious posts and then they merit the reputation they decide to build.

It's an option to use or not and it provides opportunities because it is made available.

Jane

[tsaksa]

Originally Posted by Zebra_Fact_Man

I find it funny to me that (with the exception of the guy above me) everyone posting in this thread has like a gajillion bars.
To me, this whole thread is like: "No, I don't pay any attention to the rep system" says the guy who's maxed out the rep system.

I guess it's like money: everybody wants it, but once you have it, you realize it doesn't really matter.

I have to agree a bit. I have only been in FIRST and on ChiefDelphi a little over a year, and no longer pay much attention to the rep system. But I have to admit that a year ago I did pay a lot more attention to it. Everything was new, I did not know what advice to trust, or when my own posts were on or off the mark, or even what was needed or wanted here. The rep system helped me to understand CD a little better.

I am not a regular poster, but every once in a while a topic comes up where I think I can provide some value. When I do post, I find it often takes quite a bit of time to figure out how to communicate information effectively in a short post. To do a good job you often need to take much longer that you might expect to organize and verbalize a response. I cannot say how good it made me feel as a new member of the forum to find a simple reply like, "I found that useful" in my inbox.

It is not an ideal system. But the crudest tool can often do amazing things in the right hands.

[Ekcrbe]

Originally Posted by Zebra_Fact_Man

I find it funny to me that (with the exception of the guy above me) everyone posting in this thread has like a gajillion bars.

The system is actually quite flawed in its weighting, if you ask me. I went from two blocks to nine from one opinion post, because a couple people agreed with me. That doesn't make me suddenly full of good information. In fact, I have very little technical knowledge in any area relevant to CD. It's too easy to get a lot of rep quickly. There are 733 members with all ten blocks of rep, and no way to distinguish who really made a lot of good points, and who made just a couple.

Moral: It doesn't mean much.

I would like to see a diminished influence from others on one's rep (a rep that would give you two blocks only gives you one), making it harder to reach a full bar, having a max rep limit on a post, and I second the idea from elsewhere in this thread of counting stars for every time a member reaches ten blocks (two stars and three blocks counts as twenty-three blocks), but not on a yearly basis (make the rollover of ten blocks --> star immediate).

[EricH]

It's the fact that I can bump someone up--or down--quite a bit that causes me to be very careful in giving out reputation. I have yet to give a red rep, and I tend to prefer a PM to a neutral rep, but will use either or both on occasion, if I think it's warranted.

On the other hand, I also don't look at reputation very much. Usually, it's pretty obvious how many people have given red rep when I'm considering dishing some out, so I lay off the rep button.

[JamesCH95]

I've wound up with a lot of "neutral" feedback instead of PMs or a post in the thread, which is a weird use of the rep system.

I try to positively rep if the user is making a well-thought-out point or directly providing great information.

[Foster]

I'm in the give positive to posts that I like, neutral to the posts that are from new people along with a comment on why camp. If they are really needing help then I'll PM them. So the only time that I look at the dots is when it's a post that is a little out there.

Only one red given in my CD tenure, that was a fumble finger move to a respected mentor while reading CD on my new iPad. I've gone back to a real keyboard.

Only received one red, from a disgruntled reader on a smart comment that I made that I was "looking forward to the water game"

They are just dots... But it would be nice if the dots would quit saying "You need to spread reputation around... " all the time

[bardd]

I've seen several people mention 'neutral rep'. What does it mean? Is it just giving 0 reputation points?

[JamesCH95]

Originally Posted by bardd

I've seen several people mention 'neutral rep'. What does it mean? Is it just giving 0 reputation points?

Yep. It fills "dim" dots in front of red or green dots IIRC.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by bardd

I've seen several people mention 'neutral rep'. What does it mean? Is it just giving 0 reputation points?

Exactly. When you give reputation, you're asked if you approve, disapprove, or are neutral. Default is neutral; if you haven't met certain parameters, any rep you give is neutral. See http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/fa...n_faq#faq_rep2

Of course, it's the comments that go with the rep that can be the most helpful. That's why neutral reps are popular--a couple lines about "Hey, you're new, so you might not know that it's generally considered a bad idea to start a mentor-built debate" could work at least as well as a red rep with "You idiot, why'd you bring that up!???!!!"

[JamesCH95]

Originally Posted by EricH

Exactly. When you give reputation, you're asked if you approve, disapprove, or are neutral. Default is neutral; if you haven't met certain parameters, any rep you give is neutral. See http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/fa...n_faq#faq_rep2

Of course, it's the comments that go with the rep that can be the most helpful. That's why neutral reps are popular--a couple lines about "Hey, you're new, so you might not know that it's generally considered a bad idea to start a mentor-built debate" could work at least as well as a red rep with "You idiot, why'd you bring that up!???!!!"

I find it weird that I get neutral rep with the message "thanks!" or "i really like that!" as if people are scared to give out positive rep. Maybe they don't click on "approve" though...

[connor.worley]

Originally Posted by JVN

It is an interesting phenomenon:
Post something which you think is really cool, and helpful = almost no rep.
Post something where you call out an idiot for being an idiot = tons of rep.

I must be the odd man out. All the rep I've received has been for posting "cool stuff." To be fair I haven't received much, but I've never been downrepped either.

[Tetraman]

The reputation system is like a text message while the messages system of the form are like phone calls: When you want to just say something like "I agree" or "good call, I like your style" or "Oh man, good catch" and want to make sure that person reads it but it's not really that important to prolong a conversation, use rep. When you want to share a conversation, use the messages system.

The majority of the people who I give rep to have full or near rep anyway, and the way I feel about Rep is the same way when someone Likes something on facebook. "Oh look, ThisPerson404 liked what I said. Yay me." I have a bunch of Rep statements from some posts I made, like the one in the Dodge Dart thread or from the comic I made, and while I got a bunch of "oh wow awesome" comments in the thread, I find the Rep comments better since they are more personal. I guess, thats how I see and use the Rep system - to send a little personal "I agree" or "Thank you" or whatever.

I do not give out neg rep - Not even to those posts that deserve it. I simply ignore the post.

Rep is a private form of "Liking something".

[Ekcrbe]

Originally Posted by Ekcrbe

The system is actually quite flawed in its weighting, if you ask me. I went from two blocks to nine from one opinion post, because a couple people agreed with me. That doesn't make me suddenly full of good information. In fact, I have very little technical knowledge in any area relevant to CD. It's too easy to get a lot of rep quickly. There are 733 members with all ten blocks of rep, and no way to distinguish who really made a lot of good points, and who made just a couple.

Moral: It doesn't mean much.

I would like to see a diminished influence from others on one's rep (a rep that would give you two blocks only gives you one), making it harder to reach a full bar, having a max rep limit on a post, and I second the idea from elsewhere in this thread of counting stars for every time a member reaches ten blocks (two stars and three blocks counts as twenty-three blocks), but not on a yearly basis (make the rollover of ten blocks --> star immediate).

Check that, there are 664 with 11. I didn't notice the drop from 11 to 10.
507 of those with 11 have "a reputation beyond repute", the rest have "a brilliant future".

[/OFFTOPIC]

[bearbot]

I seem that the repuation bar it decieveing because i have wrote some good post on topics such and guessing the next game or commenting of other robotsBut i feel CD picks on me becuase i get bad rep from other and is in the red but i write some post that should be given good rep CD can u help me out or i mite never post again

[EricH]

bearbot,

I think there are two things that might help you.

The first is listening to your English teachers when they discuss spelling and grammar. I'd be willing to bet that at least one or two of the red reps you've gotten are for posts that are very difficult to understand. (You can find out why the red reps are given by going to your user cp--the first thing that crops up should be the reputation panel where you can look at who gave you rep for what post and for what reason.)

The second is to understand how the system works--and how some people use it. Just because you write a post that you think is good doesn't mean that everybody else thinks it's good. Trust me, I've had that a few times. And sometimes, someone else might think it's a bad post. Some people also are very quick to hit the red rep button, why I don't know. Some use it to pound nails that stick out a little bit; others slam the big mistakes.

I will also say this: I don't look at rep when I evaluate a post's content. I look at the content (if I can understand it--if not, I'll look at as much as I can understand and try to decipher the rest). Not posting because people are giving you a lot of red is not the right response; asking for good rep may or may not work. I would highly recommend looking at why you get red rep a lot and see what you need to improve with your posts. After improving in the suggested manner, I would be surprised if you didn't start getting more greens coming your way.