What is the purpose of rep...???

As a VERY casual forum poster (something like 300 + posts in 5 years).....what should I think of rep on the forums..???...I noticed I had 3 when I logged in today from 3 months ago (first time I logged in since that last post to wish Posi well)....2 negative and one positive....I am just curious as I do not post here much at all....what is it all about...???

And I am sure someone will call this post garish and give me bad rep for it...LOL

The Purpose(s) of Rep:

* To make (insert random adjective here) people ask (repeat adjective here) questions.

* As a means of allowing people the freedom to critique (grief) you in an anonymous (safe) manner thereby providing you with insightful (insulting) commentary (ridicule) without concern for debate (retribution).

* A function by which we, the forumites, can give the Moderators migraines.

* A means by which we can string red or green Christmas lights under our names in the margin. Less indicates you're a few lights short of a Christmas Tree. In my case my bulb has just plain ol' burnt out.

* We were going to cal it "street cred" but that seemed inappropriate given how many dedicated forumites rarely see direct sunlight much less an actual street.

* The purpose of Rep is to give each person a voice in a democratic society by electing an individual to represent them in a forum of peers... oh... wait... wrong Rep.

* A method of supporting a favorite poster privately when you think supporting them publicly will earn you your own negative rep.

* R.E.P. = Ridicule Emitting Pinhead

There is no point. It COULD have been a useful indicator of whether or not someone speaks with veracity and credibility, but the "rep farmers" did away with that utility some time ago.

The same purpose as forum tags serve



Forum PVP.

Quoting from Niviene:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Niviene The Rep system is nothing more than a forum game and a way for you to have fun with each other.

For me, the point is to receive anonymous comments from people who wouldn't comment otherwise, directed to me, personally. I don't use it as a measuring stick because I have mine off and pay no attention to how many squares of what colour other people have.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

What is the purpose of... 11-03-2009 08:49 AM Keep on beating that dead horse. Perhaps you will get a rise out of it eventually.

Fascinating. I wonder if someone is taking it personally and perhaps feeling guilty? That's what this comment says to me.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/tags.php

This is the 70 most used tag list.

It's still a far more official opinion than the any other that can be brought into the argument, except maybe the developers of the forum software.

Couple of good cracks on what Rep is for, what it's good for, and what it's not so good for.

There are a couple of caveats to using rep though. While you, as a player, can't see who left rep, the moderators can. The moderators also have removed rep that contained insulting comments, inflammatory comments, obscene comments, and vulgar comments. So it's not really a safe way to grief somebody in private. Too many insults through the rep system, and there could be a ban-hammered response.

Also, rep as a farming tool is somewhat... well. If you click on the name of somebody whose posting you have an option to view their profile.

This link, for example, is the profile of Back Alley Brawler : http://boards.cityofheroes.com/member.php?u=418012

Under the profile you'll find a Statistics Tab, and in the statics tab an option to search for all the posts a player has made. This link, for example, is all the posts Back Alley Brawler has made: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/searc...archid=1191089

In practical way then, you can find out whether or not somebody has posted in a rep farming thread.

***

My own personal viewpoint is that the forum moderators would be better off enabling the rep system in a different way. The example I've used before is the forums at www.mepislovers.org which also uses vBulletin.

The forums there are set to display the names of people who have left rep, positive or negative, as well as allow players to visibly Thank various posts... like this one : http://mepislovers.org/forums/showth...742#post198742

We found that being able to Thank Posts successfully cut down on the number of Quoted For Truth and This Post! responses. We also found that by listing the names of people who left rep, either way, prevented griefing as well.

The hope is that the moderators will at one point re-examine the use of the forums reputation and rating system and see how other sites have handled the same software solution. I know the way MepisLovers is set up works. I think it would work here to.

To address the rep comment I got which should have been here to begin with:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

The purpose of rep is so that in an environment where there is a false sense of anonymity -- which brings out all sorts of bad behavior -- there may be an even greater illusion of anonymity so that they can be even worse behavior. Think of it as turbojerking.

It's best to shut it off from displaying and never looking at the comments others left... it just enables the trolls.

I tend to use it as a mini-PM system, and a game. My "fun" way of using it is by repping someone with no rep (or occasionally 0 rep when it balances out, which I've seen twice) and leaving my comment as "Death to the grey rep blocks!" Personally, I've gotten generally positive rep with a couple "wth?" negative reps thrown in. And most rep has come from the top link in my sig.

ooo, I got -rep saying"

The purpose? why to make people believe that their opinion matters of course! XD