Reputation System

This idea came from when I was reading the help page down at the bottom of the forums when I joined, and noticed that there was a mention of a member rating system. Of course, this wasn't part of the forums, and for good reason, especially with the possibility of personal bias leading to unfair and unjust ratings of members. But a rating system is different from a reputation system, strictly speaking.
What I'm proposing here is a reputation system not unlike the one on the YoYoGames GMC forums, or as Redd pointed out in a skype conversation, the Minecraft forums.

Of course, there's the obvious question of why we even need such a system in place when members here are judged as 12 or not 12 upon their first few posts.
This isn't so much meant as a simple replacement for a rating system, but a way in which bad members can improve themselves.
As of now, there are a few 'bad' members who don't even realize how their reputation is, mainly because they've done nothing violating the rules, and as a result, haven't been banned or warned.
What a reputation system could do is offer a way of these members seeing what their peers think of them without much real consequence other than, well having a bad rep. And yes, while there's always the likelihood that bad members really won't care what other people think of them, I've talked to some of these members in the past, and it would appear a good deal of them didn't even know they were doing something wrong until it was too late.

An issue with this system is the potential of what happens if a bad member themselves starts to take out their anger on other users they dislike just out of spite.
In which case, giving or taking away reputation points should be a privilege only mods, admins, or consistently not-shit members. (<- This part of the idea in particular is a pretty questionable.)

In a way, I believe this system could decrease shitposting in the future, giving new members an idea of what a shitpost is without having to be warned for or chastised for making one themselves.



Now how would this system work? (Spoilers because big images)

Spoiler

If a member makes a particularly bad or unnecessary post, then *a certain undecided demographic of people* can take away or give reputation points to the member who's posting.

Of course, you can only give or take one point per post, and even then maybe there should a limit to how much you can do that in a thread.

Spoiler

Reputation is clearly visible to anyone who visits a member's profile. Unlike warning points, this is explicitly something other can see for themselves, so there's really no way of escaping the reality of being a bad member if you are one. If they have any intention to improve at all, they'll realize their faults and maybe, just maybe, become a good member of the community.



This could very easily be a terrible idea, what with how many things could go wrong with the process, but I'm curious to see what may come out of this concept.

 

The short answer is likely no.
The long answer is likely noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

 

No thanks, i think people can judge for themselves what is a bad post/user and what isn't and i don't think we would need a number for that

 

Our reputation system used to be telling shitlords that they are, in fact, shitlords. It was quite rare to ever get this into their skulls, however, no matter how hard we tried. I doubt that a reputation number is going to do a better job of letting people know they are shitlords.

 

I've dealt with this on other forums.


I say no.

It's useless and just ego boosting/destroying, it doesn't serve any purpose.

E: I would work on some forums, but this isn't one of them.

 

I support this mainly because I come from a forum where we have a reputation system.
And there, you want that reputation.
So if you've been on a while and still have, say 5 rep, you're like "I'd quite like some rep" so you stop being a moron and try to change it.


Of course this is more in off topic section, which is the specific mcf section I hail from, so I have no idea how the suggestions users and that handle rep, but off topic seems more like these forums than the endless "gimme coloured redstones" threads we see in suggestions.

Although telling someone they're a shitlord and them being over 12 does help.

 

Ok but the thing is we don't need one
If ban threats don't prevent user shittiness why would some number be any better?

 

It's useless and just ego boosting/destroying, it doesn't serve any purpose.

Valid point. I honestly can't deny this could easily become the case with some particularly egotistical members.

If ban threats don't prevent user shittiness why would some number be any better?

Because there exist some members that really are shit (but not so shit as to get banned or even warned for it) who don't realize that they are, in fact, shit.
General 12-ish behavior isn't necessarily breaking any sort of rules, and because of this, some recent members have just been doing generally unwanted stuff without being told it's shit until they get a warning or ban.
In a way, it's like warning points but without much of a consequence other than guilt, maybe.

 

Members who are capable of feeling guilt over the community's reaction to their posts have not been the worst members. The usual problem is that 12-year-olds feel bad about everyone hating them for being so 12, but since they are 12, they don't understand what they're doing wrong and can't improve themselves. A number will not give them more useful feedback.

 

Aside from anything else I don't think the community is big enough that random people need some way of keeping track of other random people that they wouldn't be able to do on their own

 

Again, I come from a website of 12 year olds.
They often do change when they realise "oh look low rep something's going wrong".
They just kinda need a motivation to not be stupid.

Or they could just like, grow older and more mature but that takes like a year.

 

Let's put it this way
We already have a reputation system
It involves 12 year olds being 12, and others pointing it out in the open
If we have reputation, instead of the people this is targeted at saying "you're wrong, I'm not 12" they will be saying "you're wrong and the number's wrong, I'm not 12"