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[Neil]

In order to better identify those users that make the most helpful contributions to the web site the following changes have been made to the existing user reputation system:

• Every user's reputation level is now public and can no longer be hidden.
• Reputation can be given for posts in all forums except for the Testing & Technical Problems forums.
• Double weighting (i.e. double reputation points) will be given on posts made in any of the Articles forums, Feedback Forum, Gigs & Event Announcements forum, Music Discussion forum, Musicians' Corner forum, Networking forum and the News & Announcements forum.
• All staff members are still exempt from the reputation system and cannot give reputation to users.
• Reputation comments are now optional. However, reputation can still not be given anonymously.
• There is still no specific rewards or punishments in place related to a user's reputation level. The intention is for this to change in the future though, depending on how well the system works.
• All user's reputation levels have been recalculated and so you may notice that you now have different reputation and influence levels.

For more information on the reputation system please read this FAQ article.

If anyone has any queries regarding this then please reply below or contact me privately. Thanks.

[Cloud]

Don't change the system regarding rewards/punishments Neil - if you do, you'll just encourage backslapping among people. It's not really healthy for a community to have that kind of influence, and could very quickly resemble a lynch mob. If there was such a system in place, it wouldn't surprise me if two or three people on this site decided to PM people getting them to give/take away points.

Could you also reconsider the decision to make comments optional? Making it optional just takes away forcing people to have at least half a brain when it comes to these things.

Everything else is fine, though

[Neil]

Originally Posted by Cloud

Don't change the system regarding rewards/punishments Neil - if you do, you'll just encourage backslapping among people. It's not really healthy for a community to have that kind of influence, and could very quickly resemble a lynch mob. If there was such a system in place, it wouldn't surprise me if two or three people on this site decided to PM people getting them to give/take away points.

There are controls already in place to help prevent this kind of behaviour. For example, users who have enough influence points in order to give positive or negative reputation (and users don't by default - they need to build up their post count and own reputation beforehand) can only give reputation to 10 different users in any 24 hour period. And they can only give reputation to same user again once they have given reputation to 20 other different users.

Could you also reconsider the decision to make comments optional? Making it optional just takes away forcing people to have at least half a brain when it comes to these things.

I'm prepared to reconsider this decision. We'll see how things go for now and I'll re-visit this.

[jf9tp2wd40]

i like the rep system... it lets people know not to reply to stripey

[Lucky Rathen]

The comments on Cloud's profile amuse me. No offence Cloud.

[Cloud]

Originally Posted by Lucky Rathen

The comments on Cloud's profile amuse me. No offence Cloud.

None taken

(they're another reason why you should have to leave comments, I like reading the abuse )

[Lucky Rathen]

Originally Posted by Neil

All staff members are still exempt from the reputation system and cannot give reputation to users.

I disagree with this. Staff members pitch in with discussions and debates, the same as everyone else, and they are wrong sometimes, just like everyone else. So why should they be immune from criticism if they say something stupid?

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Lucky Rathen

I disagree with this. Staff members pitch in with discussions and debates, the same as everyone else, and they are wrong sometimes, just like everyone else. So why should they be immune from criticism if they say something stupid?

I think we can get given reputation (as I've got a list of what I've been given in my profile) but we can't give any ourselves.

Basically we're only receivers, not givers.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by Lucky Rathen

I disagree with this. Staff members pitch in with discussions and debates, the same as everyone else, and they are wrong sometimes, just like everyone else. So why should they be immune from criticism if they say something stupid?

This isn't making us immune from criticism though. You can criticise the staff (only constructively please!) in the threads as normal, or separately in the Comments & Suggestions forum and of course privately via PM/e-mail. I accept the reputation system is a good way of giving on-the-spot feedback about a particular post though, be it positive or negative.

The reason I actually had in mind when I disabled staff from being able to use this system is the staff being accused of favouritism or victimisation if they were to give give/take away reputation from other users. Take myself for example, because of how many posts I've made and how long I've been registered on the web site, my influence level is probably around 25 points. So one negative reputation comment from me and that is someone losing 25 reputation points right there and then.

And what punishments and rewards? One of the rewards is likely to be Supporter status once someone gets X amount of positive feedback. Such a status would be of no benefit to a staff member. Punishments might include temporary bans once someone reaches X amount of negative feedback - what happens if a staff member were to get banned? Yes, it would be amusing, but if it happened to me then no-one would be in control of the web site!

Do see what I'm getting at? By keeping the staff out of it completely then we leave the users to rate each other and only each other. The staff remain neutral.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by Chris

I think we can get given reputation (as I've got a list of what I've been given in my profile) but we can't give any ourselves.

No, people shouldn't be able to give staff members reputation. If they can, then this is something I need to look at.