Red dots

[Joe G.]

They are just dots.

That being said, the only times I will negative rep is when

1. I am particularly frustrated with a spambot
2. Someone posts something, not just a opinion I disagree with, or a simple incorrect fact, but something blatantly disrespectful, like a personal attack, and then posts again refusing to apologise. Take this thread for example. I only negative repped after the second post. In general, I also only do this when multiple posts have appeared suggesting that I am far from alone in my impression that the post is hugely disrespectful.

I've both recieved and given positive reps for anything from a simple joke to a long thought-out analysis of something, even if we disagree on the matter, such as mentor-student build.

I haven't yet recieved any negative rep here (then again, I've only been actively posting here for about a year and a half). I got one on another forum for posting in a word association game thread, with the message "forumgames sux." The truth is, many people are just too quick in pushing that "add to reputation" button. Sometimes I wish that CDs software would tell us this before, rather than after adding reputation.

[Mike Schroeder]

wait what dots...?

[Cory]

I think it was Andy who said "they're just dots" (Someone please correct me, if I'm wrong).

It's true. If you get one for a petty reason, shrug it off, chalk it up to the person being a jerk, and move on.

Just as there are good reasons to give positive reputation, there are good reasons to give bad reputation. Go reverse sort members by reputation. It's immediately going to show you people who are either trouble makers, or cannot communicate their thoughts without resorting to personal attacks and inappropriate discussion.

It's a relatively useless metric anyways. I don't choose who's posts to read based on the reputation they have.

I know many whom have only a small amount of reputation. These people are often ones we should all look up to, and take note whenever they post; even though they don't post as frequently as some, their insight is unparalleled.

I know there's some users who have massive amounts of reputation who's posts I glance at, or don't read at all.

My point is that the number of dots doesn't matter. What it comes down to is that if you write well thought out posts that avoid personal attacks and denigrating others, people will take notice, even if you have very few. If you post inane drivel, people will take notice as well, and ignore you.

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by rocketperson44

I haven't yet recieved any negative rep here (then again, I've only been actively posting here for about a year and a half).

Oooo, ya want some? We can arrange that!

[Steve W]

To give or not to give that is the question. Red dots have been given by me and taken as well. When I got them (it was a whole bunch by only a couple of people) It made me think and reconsider my approach. Red dots were good. I have given only a couple of times (once just to smarten a team member up) and followed up with a PM.

When I see a person get lots of neg rep I read their posts, Give positive rep and try to help the person out with what went wrong. So far this has worked pretty well. Again, red dots good.

They are just dots but can be a great tool if used properly. My vote keep it as it is.