Reputation Levels

[Anthony Parsons]

What are they about? I understand it obviously moves when you post or something along those lines or is it based on the votes you get for starting a thread. I looked in the FAQ, but nothing.

Hey, may as well get all these questions out of the way early in the peace. :)

[Bnizzz]

I bet every time someone asks the question "how do I increase my Pagerank?" their rep goes down! ;)

[Anthony Parsons]

That's pretty damn funny. Wish we could implement it....he he he....

That cracks me up actually. Thanks for that good laugh.

So admin? Do we have a way to implement that...huh huh....it should be compulsory.

[St0n3y]

lol. good one!

[AndyBeal]

I'm not sure, but I expect them to dance once a month and see users go crazy trying to figure out how to increase them.

I think Yahoo Forums plans on introducing "Credibility Levels" pretty soon, but they are in no way related to Reputation Levels. ;)

[David Wallace]

I bet every time someone asks the question "how do I increase my Pagerank?" their rep goes down! ;)
How about if they ask a question along these lines ... "how come yesterday I was # 2 at Google and today I am # 3 but last week I was # 10 and ... oh wait, I just dropped to # 20 ..." then they get a "grayed out" reputation level bar? :rolleyes:

It is funny how people love rating level whether it is the Google PR bar or even the High Rankings HR bar which we had a thread a while back on over there.

[Anthony Parsons]

or even the High Rankings HR bar which we had a thread a while back on over there.

I obviously missed that conversation....My HR is bigger than your HR...nuh...no its not....arghhhhhh.

I think you better brace yourself Dave, as you know its coming here also exactly as you just stated. I can see the frustration at HR sometimes when it is asked time and time again. Interesting.

[gvenditto]

To get to the original question...

Reputations are a feature of the vBulletin software that is designed to help recognize members who are widely trusted and to discourage "bad" behavior.

When you click the Reputation or Scales icon, you can Approve or Disapprove of a post. (You can also send a message to the poster when you approve/disapprove -- only they can read the comments which show up in their User CP and the comments are anonymous.)

The software gives or takes away points from people based on those Approve or Disapprove messages. Everyone earns points simply by being a member (there's a per day increment) and by posting (the more you post, the more points you have to give away).

The reputation you have shows up in the green bars and there are also phrases that appear that are linked to the reputation level you have.

Separately -- and not linked -- you can rate threads.

We should add an FAQ item on this but we are still exploring how we want to set it up. There are some configuration changes that Danny S. and Elisabeth may want to make after it is in use for a while.

[Anthony Parsons]

That sounds like a great system actually.

[St0n3y]

Sounds good, just hope it doesn't not become an avenue for abuse.

[rustybrick]

If it does, then I am sure it will be removed.

[Anthony Parsons]

If it does, then I am sure it will be removed.

Possibly removing the wrong aspect though Barry. Remove the abuser/s not the abusee?

[rustybrick]

Possibly removing the wrong aspect though Barry. Remove the abuser/s not the abusee?

Depends on the level of abuse.

[Dodger]

They have something similar to Reputation in phpBB called the Karma Index. It is a mod/hack to the software. Good Karma goes around, as well as bad I guess. It all boils down to how the program is administered in the end, and I have confidence in that being done here at SEW.

[K.S. Katz]

I really like the idea of reputation, it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

[Anthony Parsons]

My reputation will suck. Too straight forward. I call it as I see it unfortunately.

[St0n3y]

Nothing wrong with that... just don't add insults to injuries!

[Anthony Parsons]

Nothing wrong with that... just don't add insults to injuries!

That could be a problem.....Sometimes I just can't help to say what everyone is thinking.

[stoner3221]

Considering how most of my competitors feel about me. Many won’t even list my site; my reputation level will be something less then impressive I’m sure.

[Anthony Parsons]

Need one of those smilies that's rolling around on the ground pissing himself laughing.....nice.

[respree]

Personally, I don't think its a very good idea. Eventually, some instances will turn into something like this:
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=959&page=1&pp=10

[bwelford]

That's a great example, Respree. I think the best way to handle folk who post in such a way that they deserve a negative reputation is not to answer their posts. The thread dies and they are then invisible unless they want to start some other topic.

[Anthony Parsons]

That is a great example Respree. I think people should not post when it gets to that point. That's when I go PM if things are going to get argumentative or just stop replying and move on. That is for and against me. Everyone has their own opinions and that is probably the most important thing to add on some posts (IMO or IMHO). Everyone is entitled to one, whether for or against. We all just have to live with it.

I like a bit of conflict on forums. It keeps them interesting. How boring with they be if we all agreed? How would we learn if we followed each other and didn't raise new points, new theories and happenings? I don't really like when it gets abusive on the board. PM is more professional for a slinging match, not in the publics view.

[seobook]

Personally, I don't think its a very good idea. Eventually, some instances will turn into something like this:
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=959&page=1&pp=10

it is amazing how well known AnthonyCea has made himself amongst the SEO community. (he will be visiting a forum near you soon :) )

[Kal]

That could be a problem.....Sometimes I just can't help to say what everyone is thinking. LOL! That's ok. Not everybody has a bionic tact implant. I know I don't :p

[pleeker]

When you click the Reputation or Scales icon, you can Approve or Disapprove of a post. (You can also send a message to the poster when you approve/disapprove -- only they can read the comments which show up in their User CP and the comments are anonymous.)

How soon til we see threads lamenting the practice of Reciprocal Reputation Giving?

The software gives or takes away points from people based on those Approve or Disapprove messages. Everyone earns points simply by being a member (there's a per day increment) and by posting (the more you post, the more points you have to give away).

So when I vote for or against someone else's post, I lose reputation points? Not sure what you mean by "points you have to give away," and curious....

[seobook]

So when I vote for or against someone else's post, I lose reputation points? Not sure what you mean by "points you have to give away," and curious....

will this be the PageRank of forums? could it be dubbed ForumRank? can be blacklisted for voting for other forum members? we need to know the algorithm. any hints on reverse engineering.

do on post or off post factors weigh in more? is there a overoptimized post filter? what text can we use in voting? does the text around the votes count?

[seomike]

I say every negative vote gets routed through a moderator. That way if it's a good post or someone just goofing around they'll know. It'll also give'em something to do :D

[cuzco]

will this be the PageRank of forums? could it be dubbed ForumRank? can be blacklisted for voting for other forum members? we need to know the algorithm. any hints on reverse engineering.

do on post or off post factors weigh in more? is there a overoptimized post filter? what text can we use in voting? does the text around the votes count?

lol

Anyone selling votes yet?

[pleeker]

will this be the PageRank of forums? could it be dubbed ForumRank?

Well, if PageRank is named after the co-founder of Google, and we follow suit here on SEW, it would have to be called SulliRank. :D

[rustybrick]

This is all too funny.

[Alan Perkins]

LOL! That's ok. Not everybody has a bionic tact implant. I know I don't :p
I know where you can get hold of one. :cool:

[Dodger]

Anyone selling votes yet?

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[Anthony Parsons]

That is all just the funniest thing I have read in some time now.....

[gvenditto]

Getting serious again...

There are actually 2 numbers tracked.

1. You gain "reputation giving power" which you use to bestow reputation on others (or detract from theirs). You need to be around for a while and to be posting messages for a while before you can have any impact on others.

2. And you have reputation that is based on what others say about you. That's the one represented by those mysteriious phrases.

I realize the system needs to be explained in better depth -- for those familiar with other message boards, it is very similar to karma and is now packaged with vBulletin 3.x. We may choose to customize it, so I am hesitatant to describe it in great detail now.

The forums are still in beta, and Elisabeth, Danny and the moderators are evaluating what is working and what needs to be changed.

There is a section in the FAQ (always linked from the top of every page) that explains Reputations if you want to refer to it later. That's where we will document the system better, over time.

[Dodger]

I realize the system needs to be explained in better depth -- for those familiar with other message boards, it is very similar to karma and is now packaged with vBulletin 3.x. We may choose to customize it, so I am hesitatant to describe it in great detail now.


Yep the Karma Mod was for phpBB 2.0.x, of which I just found out yesterday that it is NOT going to be included in the new version of phpBB 2.2. No reason was given. But the author of the hack is going to release a version for 2.2 none-the-less because it is one of the more popular mods and has a good following.

If you are interested in the current Karma mod it is at phpBB Post Rating Mod (http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=46456). I would imagine some of the 'logic' in the script can help you out, even though it is for a different board.

[pleeker]

Thanks for the extra information, gvenditto. Appreciated.

[gvenditto]

read up on it for background -- and to understand the complex logic that goes into a system like this. But it won't necessarily explain how it is setup here.

As I said, we will do a better job of explaining it, once we are sure the configuration is something we are comfortable with. We're using vB's system but we do have choices on configuration.

[Kal]

I know where you can get hold of one. :cool:
Well if it isn't the six million dollar man himself. Hey Alan :D