Reputation system..

[rachelholladay]

I completely agree with Jane.

I give green rep points if someone makes a really good point in the hopes that they will continue to make really good points (and therefore continue to teach me and others)

Just mirroring everything said above already. Low rep doesn't mean anything unless you're in the red zone, which isn't good at all. Likewise, having the max rep doesn't mean you're Andy Baker (Unless you are Andy Baker, in which the previous statement becomes invalid).

All in all, a well thought-out and intelligent post benefits the community regardless of reputation (And it may even earn you some )

[LeelandS]

I personally subscribe to the idea that they are just dots in most cases. I tease certain friends because I have them and they don't, but it's only in jest and I don't actually think having a lot of dots makes me better than them. It's just a fun little tid-bit to look at when someone posts.

I will consider them if the person in question has one or more red dot, but even then, I don't base how much I listen to that person on what their reputation bar says. Every single person on Chief Delphi is entitled to their own opinion, so if the person in question said something and a group of people didn't like it and destroyed their reps, I won't disregard the person for having their own opinion, or just for having an opinion that differs from others (example: the mentor vs student built debate is a common CD topic. If someone speaks out against teams with "mentor built" robots and gets massacred in rep points, I won't disregard the person because their opinion differed from others and some people were offended by it).

I don't really make frequent use of giving reps, and I've never given negative reps. For the most part, I use it to thank people for saying something I found useful.

One thing I do note, is that CD users with full reputation bars are generally very reliable and noteworthy people (Karthik, JVN, Jim Zondag, Ether, etc, etc.). So if someone has a full bar of reps, I'll generally take that as a sign that they are a reliable and helpful person.

[Basel A]

Right now, I have to say I don't find the rep system all too useful. Rep simply isn't something I notice often. Like others said, I'm more likely to notice if it's red, but it mostly doesn't factor into how seriously I'll consider a post.

However, I think that when I first started on the forum, it served as a pretty good indication of who is an experienced member of the forum. Over the past few years, I feel like I've gotten a pretty good sense of who people are, so it's declined in usefulness, but generally I think it's a decent resource for newer members of the forum.

[androb4]

Hmm.. Okay, seems pretty reasonable..

• A low rep bar doesn't really mean that someone's post is inaccurate, or shouldn't be trusted.

• Now a red bar may be a different story.

• A high rep means that you may be Andy Baker..or JVN..or Karthik just kidding. But in all seriousness, that post would most likely be very helpful, or accurate etc.

Thanks to everybody who responded! I always like to see everybody contributing to a discussion.

One more question though.. What is the difference between the bright and dark green rep bars??

[Jay O'Donnell]

Originally Posted by androb4

One more question though.. What is the difference between the bright and dark green rep bars??

I believe it is just the first five green dots are dark green and beyond that they are bright green, which I assume may have been made to catch peoples attention...just a guess

[Nemo]

Does it take longer for your submitted posts to show up if you're a new user with no reputation points? Do they have to get through a moderation filter or something? It has seemed like that to our team at times, but maybe that was just gremlins in the server.

[Jay O'Donnell]

Originally Posted by Nemo

Does it take longer for your submitted posts to show up if you're a new user with no reputation points? Do they have to get through a moderation filter or something? It has seemed like that to our team at times, but maybe that was just gremlins in the server.

I think that is somewhat correct. I don't know the specifics, but it seemed like that when I started. When I started my first thread, it told me it had to be checked first before it could be submitted.

[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.

[JohnBoucher]

I would suggest that they are active community members.

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by JohnBoucher

I would suggest that they are active community members.

I would second this suggestion, as I recognize most of the people posting here

Another important note though... I never payed attention to the rep system, even when I first joined. Posting on here isn't about getting rep, it's about helping other people/teams, and being helped in return. Rep is just a side affect.

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

Rep is just a side affect.

^^ Well said. This precisely what we mean by "they're just dots."

[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).