Voting and Thanks System

Some of you may have noticed there is a plus (+) and minus (-) sign next to every post. This is part of the Reputation system built into the forums. If you like something someone said click (+) if you didn't like it choose (-). Furthermore, any topic you start gives you the ability to "thank" someone if they were helpful. The "Thanks" button lets you do this and appears next to the "Quote" button of posts from other people in your topic.

You will notice that under your name in any post or in your profile is a "Reputation" section. This records the amount of reputation points you have. The (+) yields +1 reputation point and the (-) yields -1 reputation point. The "Thanks" button yields +3 reputation points.

You can only vote (+) or (-) once per post by any given user. For example: I can vote Mike up by clicking (+) within this topic once and that is it for the day. I can vote him up again only by going to another post of his. This is in place to avoid abuse of the reputation system. The "thanking" system is slightly different. You can only "thank" someone that posts in a topic you started.

I encourage you all to start using this as it is fun and can help people know who has a good reputation on the forum and who has a bad one.

Thanks!

I'm not a fan of the "reputation" feature. I have a feeling it will make people be more careful about what they say. Yes, you should think before you speak....but I don't mean that. I'm referring to people censoring themselves because they're concerned about their rating. Yes, your rating in this forum isn't THAT serious, but I can see how people constantly clicking the minus thingy on your posts could make not want to bother saying anything at all.

Heck, I was just afraid to admit I didn't like the reputation thing because someone might not like the fact that I don't like it, and they'll click the minus sign thingy on my post......lol

Whatever, just my opinion. And it's not my forum...so if I don't like it, I can let the door hit me on my ass while I leave! And so, now that I've offerred my opinion, I shall move on and mind my own beeswax.

I appreciate your honesty, but the reputation system is intended to be a measure of whether a post was useful or helpful. When you click minus on my post above you're suggesting that my post was not helpful. When I was trying to describe the reputation system it was hard to explain this, but you bring up a good point.

When you're thinking about "thanking" someone or voting a post up or down, you should think about it in a "Was this helpful?" kind of manner. This is how I interpret it. It's not supposed to be a means of voting down posts that you don't like and voting up ones you do. The point of this is to know whether someone posts useful or helpful things based on their "reputation" points. High reputations infers that they are a useful contributor. Low reputation infers they only post negative, off-topic, or unhelpful posts.

We don't want people to have voting wars where they just drag each other down. Not liking the concept or disagreeing with the subject matter would not be grounds for voting it down. We are hopeful that people will respect each other on this forum.

I really like the voting up or thanking systems....that's cool. I think it's important to recognize someone as helpful or one who typically has the answers. I just think it will suck for someone that's seen as you put it "negative off-topic or unhelpful".

Karen wrote:I really like the voting up or thanking systems....that's cool. I think it's important to recognize someone as helpful or one who typically has the answers. I just think it will suck for someone that's seen as you put it "negative off-topic or unhelpful".

Well I would say that it would apply to the General forum less and that will be the place where the most screwing around should occur. We are not against negativity or off-topicness, but I would prefer it stay within the confines of non-serious topics. At some point there might be a section where people are looking for help on something and we would like people to feel comfortable asking serious questions without worrying about it not being taken seriously. That is probably where the reputation system will be more important. If it doesn't really work and people can't control themselves we will certainly take action if necessary. We are hoping this forum will survive longer than others. Keep posting and it will continue to grow!