Wheetsin's definitive thread on Reputation and Rep Power

[Wheetsin 714]

Ok, NOT REALLY, but we've had a lot of questions posted and I've had a lot of questions PMed, so I will do my best to consolidate what I know into one little place. Here. This information is a combination of VB FAQs, information from other VB admins, and my limited knowledge.

As we learn more and get more information, I will update this to add the new findings in. Enjoy!

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What is the reputation system?

A system that allows board members to "self-regulate" themselves, based on Reputation points which they allocate to others.

How Does It Work?

Members start with 0 reputation.

You can award every post/poster with positive or negative reputation points, and provide a comment about why the reputation was given. Over time, "good" members will likely build up positive reputation while "bad" members will build up negative reputation. Good reputation is generally an indication that people appreciate the poster's contributions, agree with their posts, etc. Bad reputation is generally an indication that people disagree with the person's posts, "don't like" the person, etc.

By checking someone's reputation level against their number of posts, you can get a baseline idea of how trustworthy/reliable their information has been, whether or not their opinion has been popular, and even how many "friends" they have on the board.

Some boards make the reputation comments publically visible. I don't believe this board does. When comments are visible, you can read the reasons why others were given bad or good reputation. This can help offset the "stigma" of positive/negative rep points (e.g. when a negative reputation comment reads something like, "We have different opinions", or a positive comment reads something like, “You’re pretty!”)

How Do I Check For A Member's Reputation?

Reputation points are listed under your user CP, at the very bottom. If you see a title bar for it but no rep info, you can expand it by clicking the arrow.

How Do I Give Reputation Points?

Click on the scales icon located in the bottom left corner of the posters info field. (the bottom of the section where join date, age, posts, etc. appear). Once you lcick on the scales, you will get a pop-up allowing you to “approve” or “disapprove” of the post, and leave comments.

Can I Control How Many Reputation Points To Give?

No, you cannot.

Based on a range of criteria, like seniority, rank and reputation, some members will have a higher rep power than others. I don’t know if it’s true for LBT, but on many boards, the higher your rep power, the more reputation points you can give. (In other words, it keeps someone who just joined today and has no reputation from giving 500 negative reps in a day).

What Is Rep Power?

Rep Power is not the member’s reputation. It's an indication of how many Reputation points they can give to others, or deduct from them. If a member has a Rep Power of 3, that means he gives other members 3 Reputation points or deducts 3 Reputation points from them, everytime he comments on their post.

How Do I Get More Rep Power?

I don’t know about LBT specifically, but generally speaking there are three ways to get more Rep Power.

Seniority

The longer you stick around the forums, the more influential you become. Every 365 days, members increase their Rep Power by 1 point.

Activity

For every 1000 posts, members increase their Rep Power by 1 point.

Reputation

For every 100 points of reputation, members increase their Rep Power by 1 point.

How Many Times Can I Give / Deduct Reputation In A Day?

I don’t the answer to this for our board, it’s something set (afaik) by the admin. Often it's limited to 10.

How Often Can I Give / Deduct Reputation From The Same Member?

You can give / deduct reputation from the same member as many times as you like. In most cases (I don’t know about LBT, but this is a common practice) you have to give reputation to 10 other members before you can give to the same member again.

What are the Pros and Cons of Reputation?

This could easily be the biggest answer in the post, so I'll give short versions. Reputation doesn't really mean anything, but it can be an ego boost or blow, and it can also be used to "get back at" someone. (If you're familiar with ebay, think of the buyers who leave negative feedback, so the sellers do too - even if the seller had a good experience).

Pros: Reputation can be a way to help new users discriminate the "good" from the "bad"... e.g. avoid trolls, known troublemakers, people who spread misinformation, etc. Reputation can also let someone know when they've posted something valuable, and give a nice "pat on the back" for their effort.

Cons: Reputation is, essentially, a way of saying "I agree" or "I disagree". Because of this, people often use it to disagree with your posts in a private way, because - for whatever reason - they don't want to disagree publically. This can result in a "good" poster having negative reputation. It can also result in harsh feelings toward other members, or "pack behavior" being used to drive down someone's reputation.

Summary

To sum it all up, here is the gist of the Member Reputation System.

Default Reputation

Every member starts with a reputation level of 0.

Rep Power

It's an indication of how many Reputation points a member can give to others, or deduct from them.

Seniority

The longer you stick around the forums, the more influential you become. Every 365 days, members increase their Rep Power by 1 point.

Activity

For every 1000 posts, members increase their Rep Power by 1 point.

Reputation

For every 100 points of reputation, members increase their Rep Power by 1 point.

[faithmd 14]

Thanks, Wheetsin!!!

[Wheetsin 714]

Ah crap, I can't edit yet. I remembered the disclaimer in the main message but not the summary. Consider this info revised to say the following (in red):

Summary

To sum it all up, here is the gist of the Member Reputation System.

Default Reputation

Every member starts with a reputation level of 0.

Rep Power

It's an indication of how many Reputation points a member can give to others, or deduct from them.

Seniority

The longer you stick around the forums, the more influential you become. Every 365 days, members increase their Rep Power by 1 point. (These are general guidelines, I don't yet know what LBT has as its specific criteria, it may be fewer days, more days, or seniority may not even be factored)

Activity

For every 1000 posts, members increase their Rep Power by 1 point. (These are general guidelines, I don't yet know what LBT has as its specific criteria, it may be fewer posts, more posts, or activity may not even be factored)

Reputation

For every 100 points of reputation, members increase their Rep Power by 1 point. (These are general guidelines, I don't yet know what LBT has as its specific criteria, it may be fewer points, more points, etc.)

[anonemouse 1]

How can you tell what another member's reputation is? I know that their rep power is listed under the number of posts they've made, but where is the reputation listed?

[anonemouse 1]

I should say that I know how to find out what my reputation is, but how do I find out what your reputation is?

[Wheetsin 714]

Here's my best guess.

Normally rep power is visible as a string of boxes. You'll see this a lot on other forums where there's some type of icon, and perhaps only 3 of 10 are filled in.

Rep power is nornally not a single box, so I am guessing that reputation here is displayed in the single box you can see, and is summarized as "positive" (will be a green box) or "negative" (will be a red box). I'm also assuming that, since it's either green or red, the reputation is averaged.

Again - with a lot of LBT-specific questions, all I can give is best guess or answers based on common practice, so I can't ensure this is the right answer.

[Wheetsin 714]

BTW, if you mouseover that box, you will get a popup - a spelled out version of the box's color. On some boards they call this their "kharma".

[Alexandra 55]

Laurend, I don't think you can, in detail. On another board I'm on the green boxes multiply as people's reputation grows. If someone's rep is bad rather than good, on balance, the boxes are a different color.

Wheetsin, thank you SO MUCH for doing this! I'm making this thread sticky.

[Wheetsin 714]

BTW, now that we officially have "rep power" I am waiting for the "dem power" feature to be added. :heh:

[anonemouse 1]

BTW, now that we officially have "rep power" I am waiting for the "dem power" feature to be added.

You and me both.

[faithmd 14]

I prefer GDI power

[Spot 20]

I did sort of a skim on this thread so forgive me if I missed it.

Where can we see the comments and rep others gave us? I know on a board I used to belong to a year ago or so, we could see who gave us what and their comments.

Maybe it's just because nobody has been spreading the love to me but I can't see anything I could click on to check this.

Thanks!

[Wheetsin 714]

Where can we see the comments and rep others gave us?

Click on "User CP" and scroll down to the last box you see. It shoudl appear after your list of subscribed threads, and right before the "forum jump" drop-down. It will read "Latest Reputation Received" and display the last 5 reps. This may not show if you haven't received any - I'm still trying to figure that out.

[Alexandra 55]

BTW, now that we officially have "rep power" I am waiting for the "dem power" feature to be added. :heh:

:pound: :pound:

[Wheetsin 714]

A little more information. I noticed some blue squares (in addition to the red and green) and thought we might get some questions about that.

When you view your rep, you will see a little red, green, or blue/gray box next to each one. These squares indicate the effect that the comment had on your reputation score. If a member left you a positive rep (and themselves had a positive Rep Power), the square will be green. If the member had no Rep Power the square will be blue. And if the member disapproved of your post, the square will be red.