Reputation Points.
 

I just checked my reputation points again. (GO to User CP in the menu bar above, and scroll to the bottom of the page...)

And again, people slam or praise, but I don't know who.

For me, since it was suggested a long time ago, I include my screen name in all comments, as I believe that is the adult thing to do...

A complement is nice, and harmless enough if it is anonomus, but when someone says mean things, or slams another for expressing an opinion, that is the act of a very petty person...

I believe that the reputation section should automatically include the author. It should not depend on people acting like adults, because those that do, are not the ones taking cheap shots.

How does everyone else feel? Is there a value in allowing these cheap shots to continue? I should imagine if a clear consensus were to be raised, then the management of this site may respond.

Of course, my opinion may be in the minority. If that is the case, I will continue to lable my comments, non the less...

In my many years of using forum software that allowed rating people or topics, I have always seen abuses. Some of the abuse was between friends who help each other get more points than they deserve, some was by what I refer to as drive-by rep shooters, who leave bad rep without revealing their name. Occasionally, this happens to me - I've had so-called friends ask me to give them good rep in exchange for the points they gave me and I have been the victim if drive-bys. Just in the last couple of days I received 5 drive-bys here from people that don't have the balls to tell me who they are. I also received one good rep by someone who did leave their name.

The forums I own at the present do not use reputation points. I figger if you can't tell someone publicly or privately that they either make you feel good or bad, then you don't need a forum feature to do it for you. Communication skills are not a given. You ain't born with them, they have to be learned and developed. Half of communication is listening (or comprehending what you read). The reputation system of vBulletin forum software makes it too easy to shirk the responsibility as community members to to learn how to convey our feelings and nearly impossible to correct any misconceptions once anonymous comments are made.

My preference would be to discontinue the use of the reputation feature. In any case, I don't use it to give good or bad points. I try my best to speak my mind either openly or in private - usually openly because I got very little to hide.

R'gards,

Jim

I would have left you a rep point for that info, but the system would not let me! LOL

I fully agree. I believe that any sort of forum feature that denotes status should be turned off, except of course for moderator and admin titles. Anytime you have measurments like rep or post count, it often becomes a contest, and thus a useless metric. Join dates are plenty.

I almost agree to it all. One thing I am not so sure about is post count. There are many people who lurk and know a great deal and do not most much. They may have a low post count and tremendous value. Other, simply bloviate constantly, and have a high count...

Still, a person with a very large number of posts will at least have the advantage of knowing the system, so a new person comming to a forum like this, and seeing a person with 12 posts, vs a person with 1200 posts, will have a sense of senority...

Still, I don't care what is on the forum of this nature, as long as everything leaves a trail back to the poster... The only name we have here is a screen name anyway... And that is another thing that drives me crazy... Who among us is really that important that they legitimately need to insulate themselves from their real name? Cute titles are fun, but I see no value at all in making believe you are someone else... Of course, this has been already discussed, and some like the ability to make believe they are someone else, or that they have a different name... That is their right, I just don't value it...

eJM, I was one of your 5 that left a negative. I did not realize, because I don't read every forum, that it doesn't tell you who leaves rep points. I don't dislike you, but I strongly dissaproved of how you addressed Segsby, who I have alot of respect for, in another topic - but I think my comment to you spoke for itself and you may address me publicly or privately as you wish.
Nonetheless, I apologize that my comment to you left you no means of answering, and now that I know, rest assured all my feedback will have my name on it. Please feel free to leave a negative, it would only be fair
+B

I find this whole topic ridiculous. Are we really so shallow that we constantly seek the approval of others?

Who cares who left what type of reputation? We all know what we each are capable of providing to this forum and whilst a new member may not, I bet many of the new members will figure it out pretty fast.

There were people who hadn't even realized there was a rep point feature until Plo made his first post about this oh so many months ago. Sure, there are going to abuse the system but if we let sleeping dogs lay then most people will ignore it.

Finally, I build my own opinion on a person's value, an opinion not based on reputation points or number of points, but based on their value as an overall SegwayChat member.

Steven

I'm not sure its all about ego Steven, I first came here to get info on an ebay auction that became my wife's beloved glide Vera, and then again to find out if I was being scammed on my Beucephalus. I knew nothing about Segways other than what Antony [MadSegs] showed me, and I wanted info from people that actually HAD glides and could answer my questions- I think reps help the non-forum regulars out there to see who knows what they are talking about and who is spouting.
+B

Damn red wine is making you see (and post) double! I mean triple! I mean single! (the case of the missing posts!)

The cheap stuff always does that, you know :D

Steven

Bill: you deserve rep points for that.]

eJM: ditto every word that BillPaxton said for me also. (I think I left a negative on you for exactly the same reasons, I really can't remember now but if I didn't I do remember that I thought about it and meant to at the time) But ditto everything Bill said. I agree with Bill. And sorry also for actions, or thoughts if I didn't.

If you like I could send you a negative now, but sign my name. And then after spreading it around a bit I could come back and give you a positive to counter the second negative. But if I did forget to and didn't give you that first one, then the new bad and the new good would cancel each other out. But that would really suck if I did already give you one, then I'd be dunning you twice until I gave you the good one, and it would be like a roller coaster. And if I died before giving you the positive that would be unfair.

So after I finish this I'm going to give you a positive for speaking your mind and not backing down even though I didn't agree with you, you were and are good about being a man and being upfront. If when I try to give you one I am not able to, then I'll know that I really did give you a bad one and it may be awhile before I'm able to give you a good one. But I will. So if you don't see a positive after reading this from me, you will know that I did give you a negative for sure. But then I will give you a positive later (again unless I die first).

If you'd like I wouldn't be bothered by you giving me a bad rep for giving you a bad rep anonymously (if I did), but then maybe you'd also be feeling like then later on giving me a positive for owning up to everything and apologizing (unless you died before giving me the positive). Actually I think I'd prefer it if you gave me the positive first and the negative later, and I promise I won't be praying for your death.

AND A "HAPPY WET FINGER" FOR EVERYBODY WHO WANTS ONE TOO.
I'm really trying to reserve them for negative things as a determent, I really don't want people to like them or learn to like them and then do negative or positive things to get them. I really don't want to give one to anybody, I haven't yet, I just have been suggesting them as an alternative to electrocution, pepper spray, and 9mm's. And your finger is always there, always available quickly, and IT'S NOT DEADLY.

Ok, I had red wine earlier, I always said I shouldn't set my drinks next to my computer and tonight I spilled the wine all over the computer. I dried it and set it upside down to drain and dry. I tried it later and it came on and fizzled off. I kept trying it over and over for several hours and it finally is working right again and I guess all of this got pented up inside of me. I'm ok now.