IMPORTANT! New Forum Feature Test Month

[DaveW]

Right guys, Crimson, Rankenphile and I have decided to trial a new feature here at TBCS: Reputation points.

UPDATED: 27th October...



What are Reputation Points?

Reputation points are given to users by other users. When someone helps you out, you give them a good reputation point. If they spam your thread, insult you, or derail your topic, then slap on a bad reputation point. The overall reputation point score is visible to all users.

What if someone doesn't like me and I get a bad reputation?

Then you're probably pissing folks off, or being a nuisance. If someone's actually purposefully giving you bad points without just cause, then we'll give them a 3 day or more holiday, depending on the severity of the situation. Abuse of the new system will result in holidays. This includes making more user accounts to give yourself a good rep. We WILL be monitoring the reputation points closely. Do NOT try and cheat this system. Just to clarify for the not-so-clever, a holiday is also known as a temporary ban. On top of this, you cannot rate someone twice in a row: you must rate 3 other people before you can rate the same person again.

What if i get a bad reputation?

Nothing. We don't care if your reputation is sky high or 6 foot under. It's for you and for other users to use to thank and punish each other to save us Mods a heap of trouble. If, however, your reputation falls below -10, then you will lose the ability to vote until you save your reputation somehow. You are NOT allowed to ask for reputation points!

What do you mean a heap of trouble?

Things like "He's spamming my thread" and "Woot! 50 posts!". With this system, your post count becomes irrelevant. There are people who have been here for a long time, with post counts under 200, who have contributed more than folks with post counts over 600. This way, you'll know where you stand. Also, if someone's spamming your thread, hell, just slap them with a bad rep point. This will also stop us having to holiday users for less severe spamming.

Are there rewards for being good?

Just like there's no punishments for being bad, there's no rewards for being good. Not at this stage anyway.

Can anyone see my reputation?

Yes, everyone can see your reputation. The rep points have a system similar to the post count one. You'll see what i mean later.

So what's this 'trial' all about?

We want to see how you guys take to this system. After a month, we'll decide if it's staying or going.

But i like the post count system!

Well, tough. I have one of the highest post counts here, if not the highest for an active user; and I'm sick of new users spamming to get their post counts up. Reputation points are not so easy to earn.

When should i hand out the goods then?

Try not to throw these around. If we catch users tossing these things around like pennies, then the system will probably not stay. Treat the system with some respect. You guys can only hand out a maximum of 15 reputation points a day for now. If this is too much, we'll lower it. If it's too little, we'll raise it.

How do people know why they get reputation points?

You can opt to leave them a comment, complimenting them or berating them on whatever you choose.

What about the mods? Are you guys immune? Can't you just set your rep points to whatever you want?

Yes, we can. But we won't. We'll be participating in this trial run as well, and you can happily give us bad rep points-nobody's perfect, and even we make mistakes. We won't single anyone out for giving us bad rep points. We won't edit them out either. The moderators reputation votes count for 5 normal reputation votes. Just so you know. If we like something you do, then you'll be getting 5 points instead of just one. (I personally will hand out these 5 points to people who learn to walk away from fights, instead of taking up the gauntlet!)

Are rep points anonymous?

For now, we're making reputation points anonymous. Although we can see and we are watching you.

What about new users?

You need to make 10 posts before you can use this system. Everyone starts off from base 1 in the reputations department.

I've got a good rep, so why is it my vote is equal to everyone elses? I should be special!

Indeed you should be. Every 100 rep points increases the value of your votes by 1. So say you have 101 points. When you hand out a good rep, your vote is now worth 2 points. For 201 points, it's 3 points per vote. And so on. Don't expect to be handing out huge amounts of extra clicks though.


What are the green things under my username?

It's a visual indication of your reputation points. It goes black if you're sitting on 0. Below this, it's red. Above this, it's green. Every dark green scale shows you've aquired 40 votes. When you have all 5 green scales, then you start getting light green scales, which are harder to aquire at 60 rep points each.

So what's Rep Power and the number next to it?

This number reprisents the number of points your vote is worth. It increases by 1 every 100 points you receive, as mentioned above.

How do i vote?

Click the scales in another user's post to place your vote. You can only approve/disapprove once in a post.

How do i see my current Reputation?

This number reprisents the number of points your vote is worth. It increases by 1 every 100 points you receive, as mentioned above.

How do i know why i've received feedback?

If you go to your user CP, and scroll down, it will be at the bottom of the page. It's configured to show you the last 10 points you've received.

Post additional questions below. I'm pre-empting some of your questions above, but hey, I'm not psychic. Although i am looking forward to turning this on.

-Dave

[DaveW]

Ahem...forgot to mention. Your reputation is the little coloured box under your name, above your contact info. Green is good, anything else is not so good.

-Dave

[d_stilgar]

I personally like this system. I've been around a while but only post when I feel I can contibute. This will be a good way to show who's got a good rep and not a lot of posts (which,as you said, is the point).

I personally don't plan on changing anything I do around here. If someone doesn't like the things I post, I think it is their personal problem. I also don't want to stop posting things because of what people might think.

I also don't plan on giving out a whole lot of points (good or bad) unless someone derails my own threads or starts flaming people. Good will be handed out for good help.

So, I think this is a good descision. I hope the test goes well.

[.Maleficus.]

So if you get more rep points, do you get more green boxes? What happens to the box if you get a bad rep point? Does it turn red?

So far I like the concept of the system. I guess we'll see how it pans out later though. Like d_stilgar said, I hope the test goes well.

[Zephik]

This is an excellent Idea! Way to go guys! Your always making this place a more fun and exciting inviroment AND I have yet to see a better group of people that I have found here on the TBCS forums. -Hugs-

:up::up:

-SF

[simon275]

I love this concept. It gives 'snaps' to the people who help out and answer the in depth techie questions. I hope this is kept on the fourms how many points does it take to earn another green bar?

[d_stilgar]

Okay, I have a question. Cruising the forums I found a reputation bar that said it was disabled. I'm just wondering the hows and whys.

[DaveW]

Only Crimson's bar is disabled. As he, in his own words, 'runs the joint', it makes little sense to give him a reputations bar. All new users start off at 0.

All current users start off at 10.

Glad you like this feature, i hope it works too :D

I think the next green box appears at 50 rep points, and it goes up to 2000+. So good luck in getting a rep guys :)

-Dave

[GT40_GearHead]

the concept is great, i hope the test goes well, and you guys keep it

[Zephik]

Okay, I see the green bar but I dont see any numbers? Where do you go to see your reputation status other than the green bar? Like you said everyone starts out at 10. Where do I see that? lol why am I getting so confused over something so easy... I need a good smackin I guess. :think:

-SF

[DaveW]

That's interesting...i was sure that you could see them. It looks like only the moderators can see the actual point value of your rep.

Perhaps you can see them when you actually receive some reputation points? Who knows.

-Dave

[TEST_USER 1]

This is TEST_USER 1, some thing I (Dave) use to test the new features on the forum.

You can see how a reputation of 1500 looks now. He doesn't have an associated rank, and I assume this is because his reputation has been manually entered.

I hope this answers some questions.

-Dave

[DaveW]

I should also point out that reputations are NOT anonymous at this point. I though they were, but they're not. You can see the last 5 reputation points you received at the bottom of your USER CP, who game you them, and where you got them.

If any are blackened out, this means that the voter's vote is not counted at this minute: when they have made over 10 posts, these will then be counted towards your total.

Have fun with the new system. :)

-Dave

[Airbozo]

Looks good to me. Can't wait to see how this turns out.

(you guys are always on top of things...)

[Slug Toy]

i have a question.

can we give ourselves points? i just noticed that i have the same option on my posts as with anyone else's. that may not be a good thing.

and i think we SHOULD give crimson a reputation, and have it locked at something like -10000 so new people are afraid of him.

[ajmilton]

you can't, as far as i can tell. i tried it and i just got a popup saying "you have 10 points" or whatever.

[gaz_the_chav]

Not that I am putting down what your doing (I think i is a good idea!) but don't you think this new rep thing is going to cause alot of arguments between people even if it for a month. If I say omething that I think is appropriate but someone dosent and leaves me bad rep. I wouldent be really pleased lol. Same the other way round!

Just sayin (Please don't leave me bad rep lol!!)

-gaz

[DaveW]

Well..that's kind of the point man.

If someone gives you a bad rep for no reason, then we'll take it away.

But if you've done something that might actually annoy the other person, like spam their thread, promote drugs or piracy, etc etc. then you'll get a bad rep.

-Dave

[Zephik]

This is a bit off topic...

But what exactly is the reputation mahjigger a picture of?

-SF

[.Maleficus.]

I believe it is a balance. Or at least that's what it looks like to me.

[DaveW]

But what exactly is the reputation mahjigger a picture of?


I believe it is a balance. Or at least that's what it looks like to me.

Also known as THE SCALES OF JUSTICE!!!

...heh heh.

-Dave

[Slug Toy]

oh.... now that i look at it... you're right. at first i thought we were talking about that green box thing... and even i cant turn that into a scale in my mind. then i realised that we're talking about the thing that looks like crumpled up paper to me... and now i know im either blind or stupid. actually, both... i already knew i was stupid... now i know im blind.

[GT40_GearHead]

so i'm not the only sorry ass that didn't seen that:dead:

[Zephik]

lol holy mother of jebus dave. Even though they are just words in a HUGE font, it was almost like, I could feel the vibration of your booming voice from here! Play god much?

[Silenced_Coyote]

So we should see an actual point value when we hover over the little green box? And can guests see this value too? Because I logged out and the green box still says that same thing (so and so is well known in these parts).

Are you sure reputations are not anonymous? In my user cp, I see the thread name of where I got them, the comment, date, and how many total points I have. But I don't know who gave them to me.

[simon275]

They are anonymous but if its just you helping someone out its pretty easy to put two and two together.

[DaveW]

Sorry...as an admin i get to see who gave me points. I thought the same for you guys...we're all learning this system together guys :)


Play god much?

:D There's nothing more fun than chasing down stray villagers in Age of Empires.

-Dave

[deathstarchris]

Points are good.

[DaveW]

I've rebalanced the reputation points on the website. It's now easier to ger a 'reputation promotion'.

Me and Rankenphile agreed on these changes after watching the way reputation points are distributed.

Also, when your reputation reaches 100 now, you will get 2x voting power, and 3x at 200, and 4x at 300.

We don't really expect anyone to get more than 300, but we have extra ranks in case you do.

For most, the new reputation points ranks will not show until you recieve a new rep point, whether it's good or bad (although i'm not 100% certain again.)

You will roughly 'level up' every 25 rep points. Have fun with the new system, but beware, if we catch you cheating for rep points, you'll enjoy a brief holiday.

-Dave

[gaz_the_chav]

Sorry lol define 'cheating' the system do you mean maknig new accounts and adding points for yourself?

cheers

-gaz

[Crimson Sky]

Sorry lol define 'cheating' the system do you mean maknig new accounts and adding points for yourself?

cheers

-gaz

Not so much that, but say, going to an experimental clinic, having yourself cloned, then raising the clones up, teaching them computer skills, getting them computers and apartments in different cities and different ISP's and having them logon to the TBCS forums at various times and then falsely giving you good reputation points.

THAT sort of cheating. Not allowed.

[Zephik]

oh, snap!

I like this setup alot more. :up: :up:

-SF

[gaz_the_chav]

Not so much that, but say, going to an experimental clinic, having yourself cloned, then raising the clones up, teaching them computer skills, getting them computers and apartments in different cities and different ISP's and having them logon to the TBCS forums at various times and then falsely giving you good reputation points.

THAT sort of cheating. Not allowed.


Thanks crimson I will take that as a yes?? Damn it I really got told but I wont fight it I'm a good person lol

-gaz

[Crimson Sky]

There I fixed that crappy looking gif of the scales. I Guess the vBulletin graphic artist must have pulled an all nighter when he/she made that gif and just said 'the hell with it"

[Zephik]

There I fixed that crappy looking gif of the scales. I Guess the vBulletin graphic artist must have pulled an all nighter when he/she made that gif and just said 'the hell with it"

<on topic> They look the same? I must be blind lol. Maybe I just cant tell the difference because I already knew what they were? </on topic>

<off topic> What is with "I wasn't gonna eat it, I was just gonna taste it :devious:" Crimson? lol It cracks me up though. </off topic>

-SF

[gaz_the_chav]

Wow I never realised before that the picture was scales!

I can now though it definatly looks better!

-gaz

[DaveW]

You might need to refresh your cache to see the new pic. The transparency needs fixed on it, but i'm sure someone will get round to it eventually. ;)

Nice one Crimson. Definately more obvious now.

-Dave

[Crimson Sky]

whoops, forgot about the transparency. should be fixed now

[Crimson Sky]

<off topic> What is with "I wasn't gonna eat it, I was just gonna taste it :devious:" Crimson? lol It cracks me up though. </off topic>

-SF

I think its from a Winnie the Pooh story. :) :) "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh"

[DaveW]

Hey man, nice. That looks good. :D

FINAL change to the reputations system. The little green icons!

You'll get a dark green icon for every 40 reputation points you recieve.
The light green icons are harder to get, from 200 rep points onwards. They're worth a whopping 60 each. That means that you'll have your biggest bar when you hit a crazy 500 reputation points.

This isn't officially supported by Vbulletin for some reason, but i managed to work around that to suit our particular community. The way you're supposed to have it working it by handing out, say 15 points per vote. What's the point in that?

-Dave

[d_stilgar]

I think its from a Winnie the Pooh story. :) :) "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh"

Now that you give the reference I can totally hear Pooh in my head saying it in my head. It was funny before I realized where it was from and now it is funnier (<-- Yes 'funnier' is a word).

On Topic: The new scales are better, definately more obvious as scales and not a starship or anything.

[gaz_the_chav]

not a starship or anything.


No way! lol Thats exactly what I though it was orginally lol.

Plus I use that excuse all the time - I was only tasting it lol

-gaz

[Razors Edge]

Hey, not to be Jhonny Raincloud but I don't know how to give points our or ****, or maybe I just didn't read it right?

[ajmilton]

to give points (either positive or negative) just click on the scales picture in the post you want to give the points to
then you pick if it's good or bad, and enter a comment.
if you click the scales in one of your own posts it tells you how many points you have.

[JacobS]

Great Idea! this will help guys who are pretty new around the forum by showing them who they can trust. Good job

[Acey]

Owh... no wonder... I thought what's that under the box. So basically the 1 comes automatically right?

[Omega]

Okay, I've seen something like this on another forum. It's a pretty cool system. One thing, however, I haven't seen current members with 10 rep. Did you mean just 1 by chance?

[.Maleficus.]

Ahhh, I'm confused. :(

In my User CP it says I have 21 rep points.

On my green box it says I have one.

?

[Silenced_Coyote]

This is just a guess, but I think that when you hit 40 points, then it would display the number 2 next to the green box.

[Zephik]

I think its from a Winnie the Pooh story. :) :) "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh"

Psh, you can't beat winnie the pooh man! :dead: ;)

Oh sweet! I can see it now. It looks WAY better. Nice job! :up:

-SF

[DaveW]

The number next to your box is how many rep points you give out when you vote. It increases by 1 point every 100 rep points you earn for yourself.

The admins start of with 5 and we also have ours increased depending on our rep.

When you get 40 rep points, you get another green bar next to your name. (flick back a few pages and see test user 1. Test user 1 is also under an infraction: part of the new infraction system. Go take a look :) )

-Dave

[DaveW]

Just spent some time looking through the rep points dished out. It's good to see you guys are using it right! Bad points are being distributed where neccesary and i'm liking what I see.

-Dave

[gaz_the_chav]

Thats all good! Is there any chance of the rep point not being anonumous (or atleast the positive ones) as I really would like to see why I have got given a rep point and who by so I can give em one back!

-gaz

[ajmilton]

i think that's partly why it >is< anonymous

rep's supposed to (in my mind) be earned by one's contributions to the forums. not by one's contributions to your own rep :P

[.Maleficus.]

i think that's partly why it >is< anonymous

rep's supposed to (in my mind) be earned by one's contributions to the forums. not by one's contributions to your own rep :P
I agree. Though I would still like to know who gave me what.

[DaveW]

Sorry guys, but the attitude's all wrong for that at the moment.

If you want to let someone know then sign the comment box when you give out a rep point.

-Dave

[DaveW]

Hoped i wouldn't have to say this:

If someone gives you a bad reputation, they give it to you for a reason. If you see their comment, guess who gave you the bad rep, and then give them a bad rep back, then you totally kill the whole system.

Now, the person who I'm talking about knows who they are. I'm not going to embarrass you by telling the world how petty you are. I gave you bad rep for a valid reason. The alternative is a yellow card, which, believe me, is way more embarrassing than a bad rep point.

I've not deleted your reputation point, even though I could: that's not how the system works. But if i catch anyone, and i mean anyone, giving a bad rep point in retaliation for one they've received, then I'm yellow carding you for 15 days. And believe me when i say that's not something you want.

-Dave

[GT40_GearHead]

next time show no mercy, dave!

btw: i may be blind or something(prob stupid) but where can i see my rep points, i dont think anybody gave me something, but i remember you sayd the older members have 10 points or something like that, can i see them ??

[DaveW]

If you click the scales in one of your own posts, it should tell you the number of points you have.

-Dave

[GT40_GearHead]

ahaaa so i have 11 right , i see, some one must like me

thanks for the fast help dave

[gaz_the_chav]

I have a question...

If everyone started at 10 rep points, How come on my user panel it says I have 25 rep points yet there is only two people who have gave me 10 of the points. If the user does not leave a comment will it not display them in your rep point place on your user cp? If it does display the comment thing, how come there are only two there rather than three?

If this does not make sense I will try to reword it!

-gaz

[DaveW]

Different People have different voting power. I'll try and explain this again from the start:

Every has a reputation, which is decided by votes.

Some people's votes are worth more than others. For example, if Gaz gave me a vote, my reputation would go up by one.

If, on the other hand, i gave gaz a vote, his reputation would go up by five. This is because as a moderator, my votes are worth more. This is true for all the moderators. The number of points your vote is worth is your Rep Power, which is displayed next to the green box under your username.

For every 100 reputation points you receive, your voting power will increase by one. This is not a lot, but it slows down the approach of saturation in the reputation system.

If you have only had 2 votes, but see a drastic change in your reputation, it's because a moderator may have given you a vote. Due to changes in the system, you must have started of with 15 votes: because i've looked through your history and you've had 2 votes from moderators.

Everyone who was a member when this happened will have the same starting point of 15 rep points, but from here onwards, new members start life with 1 rep point.

Your votes do not count until you make 10 posts-and if your rep falls below 10, then your votes no longer count.

Hope that clears things up. If it's still confusing, feel free to ask me anything about the new system.

The trial's going very well so far, with only 1 person making an accidental bad vote, and 1 malicious use of the system.

-Dave

[gaz_the_chav]

Due to changes in the system, you must have started of with 15 votes: because i've looked through your history and you've had 2 votes from moderators.

That answered my question thanks!

-gaz

[DaveW]

I've updated the first post to take into account your questions and something i forgot.

-Dave

[Zephik]

With the rep feature, can you see where and to whom you have added a good or bad reputation?

-SF

[gaz_the_chav]

I think you can but by only clicking on the scales for the post that you have already added that rep. for. I think that is it atleast that is what happens on mine lol.

-gaz

[DaveW]

I've banned Razors Edge from the forums for a year. One of the reasons behind this is because he would guess who left him bad rep points and hand out bad rep points in return.

Let this be a quick lesson to anyone else who decides to try this.

-Dave

[Omega]

lol holy mother of jebus dave. Even though they are just words in a HUGE font, it was almost like, I could feel the vibration of your booming voice from here! Play god much? lol

FYI - Jebus is jesus's long lost brother from the year 2063.

-SF

I am so tempted to record myself saying, in my big big voice

"THE SCALES OF JUSTICE"

=D


i think I will.

[Zephik]

lol

Go for it! Be sure to post it somewhere so we can all laugh at your girly voice. :p *kidding*

I dont think my question was ever answered... but I have a pretty decent memory so it's not a problem. ^^ ...actually I think the only person I gave a reputation point to so far is MDCS.

BTW: I am loving the new names for the forums. Our leader must be getting a bit bored? Maybe time for a new mod!? ;)

Or maybe it is you dave?

-SF

[DaveW]

I'm the one messing around at the moment. I'll explain them later.

-Dave

[GT40_GearHead]

uuuuuuuuu new forum, "Technology Talk"
:banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:

[DaveW]

Congrats to Airbozo! Second green scale!

You also get a bunny. :bunny: The banana's being slowly tortured to death on the boards after all.

-Dave

[gaz_the_chav]

Is Airbozo the first general public member to get a second green scale then?

Oh yeh, can we see the scale for who has the most rep anywhere?

-gaz

[Omega]

lol

Go for it! Be sure to post it somewhere so we can all laugh at your girly voice. :p *kidding*

I dont think my question was ever answered... but I have a pretty decent memory so it's not a problem. ^^ ...actually I think the only person I gave a reputation point to so far is MDCS.

BTW: I am loving the new names for the forums. Our leader must be getting a bit bored? Maybe time for a new mod!? ;)

Or maybe it is you dave?

-SF


Girly? Who you callin' Girly?

http://media.putfile.com/Scalesofjustice

[DaveW]

Oh yeh, can we see the scale for who has the most rep anywhere?

No, and it's probably a good thing. It's not intended to form a 'leaderboard' structure: it's just there so that newcomers to the boards know who to trust, and allows the regular forum users to whack you back into line should you ever do something to upset them. A 'leaderboard' would work against the community spirit.


Is Airbozo the first general public member to get a second green scale then?

He is indeed! Mostly through answering newbie's questions. Well deserved! (Note: you get these automatically every 40 rep points remember!)

-Dave

[Zephik]

Girly? Who you callin' Girly?

http://media.putfile.com/Scalesofjustice

ROFL

Omgosh... I haven't laughed that hard in a while!

Your voice still isn't as deep as I pictured it... but certainly not girly. Here one second... I'll turn up my bass as far as it can go and I'll turn on the echo effect on my computer. :p

Want to give it a shot dave? C'mon! You'll feel like a real man!

...also so that we can laugh at you. :D

-SF

BTW

Congrats to Airbozo on his second scale!

[gaz_the_chav]

Cheers Dave you answered my question perfectly lol

Oh yeh I did'nt say this in my last post!

:up: WELL DONE AIRBOZO :up:

-gaz

[Bucko]

Oh yeh, can we see the scale for who has the most rep anywhere?


No, and it's probably a good thing.


Not quite true Dave. You can see an ordered list of who has the most rep. If you go into the members list, then click the reputation on the list of names, it resorts them into most rep, to least rep, or clcik it again and it sorts it from least rep, to most rep.

[DaveW]

Ok, then i guess you can. ;)

-Dave