ANNOUNCEMENT: The Reputation System

[Dreadknux]

For those of you who have been here long enough since the forum upgrade, you'll have noticed that we have a Reputation System set up. We, the SSMB mods and admins, have noticed an increasing number of cases where this system is being abused, to the point where members of malicious intent constantly give negative reputation points to a victim after a dispute or debate. We call this act 'neg-spamming', and we don't like it. At all.

We expect our members to be mature and adult enough to treat the Reputation System with respect. If you find a post that is outrageous, off-topic, flamebait/flaming or otherwise breaking the rules, by all means add a negative point. Conversely, we encourage you to give positive reputation points to members that post exceptionally well in a given topic.

What we don't expect to see is immature butthurt idiots come to a disagreement in a debate, do a post history search on the opposing member and then neg-spam them in retaliation. The administrators can pull up a member's reputation history and determine exactly who has been giving reputation to who, for what posts in what topics, at the exact time and date.

If we have reason to believe you are responsible for neg-spamming, we will not hesitate to take action. We have banned several members recently by abusing this system, so don't think you can get away with it.

If you feel you are the victim of a neg-spamming, please contact one of the SSMB Administrators (either myself, Chris, bmn or Roarz -- moderators haven't the power to check Reputation history as far as I'm aware) and detail your last actions over the last few days. If we determine that you're a member in good standing, or otherwise have an extraordinary case, we will investigate and take appropriate action on the offending member, and your lost points will be given back to you.

However, don't contact an admin just because your total number of Reputation Points is in the minus numbers! We can't cure the fact that people just might not like what you say. We will only investigate if the matter is an extraordinary case of Reputation Points drop.

And don't even think of getting around this crackdown by spacing time between your neg points, or getting others to neg-rep alongside you. We know every trick in the book, and if you try to cover up your neg-spamming, you and those involved will be banned on the spot, no questions asked.

With that said regardless, enjoy the Rep System! If you have any questions please reply to this topic, and we'll try and answer your concerns.

[Diz]

I have personally not seen so many cases regarding this, but the fact that members actually do it saddens me. We are supposed to be a close, warm and nice community, not outright rude like that.

As chief Dread' has hinted, we will be striking down harshly upon such cases. Be nice, people! <3

[Blue Blood]

I so totally called this. But no, really, I do like that you guys are going to crack down on the system being abused. It's a broken system when you can go into a debate topic and filter out all of the non-majority opinions.

[Cortez]

And here I was hoping you'd done away with the system altogether

[Cake]

I didn't realise people cared about their reputations anyways; don't get me wrong I don't have a problem with the system being here, but I just figured it was for shits and giggles and wasn't a permanent addition XP

[Badnik Mechanic]

lol I've been a victim of this, at least I'm quite sure I have, a couple of my posts have a random -1 rep point, however for the life of me I cannot understand why, one post that springs to mind was a post that was new Aliens Vs Predator Screenshots... I dunno maybe someone doesn't like aliens? But I don't mind since it looks like it was a bit of a one off, so no need to go digging into that one.

I didn't realise people cared about their reputations anyways; don't get me wrong I don't have a problem with the system being here, but I just figured it was for shits and giggles and wasn't a permanent addition XP

The thing is though, whilst it's great if you have a lot of rep, I can imagine it's quite horrible to come online and discover a mass of -, it is the weakest weapon of the frailest coward, if you don't like someone and don't agree with them, get in the topic, stand up and post against their argument, don't just go "Owww negative rep!" and sly away like a bad mellodramatic villain... in a cape...

However I have seen the reverse, I know of some people and could name them (but I won't) who have actually agreed to trade rep points... I mean that says it all really doesn't it!

Edited November 17, 2009 by Casanova

[Pelly <3's U]

Also I think we should state that the majority of abuse cases of the system are pretty few and far between.

[Dreadknux]

This is true, it's not like it's happening left, right and centre. And yeah, we kept the system because we thought it would add some jazz. But that shouldn't overshadow the fact that some people do get very upset at seeing dramatic drops in rep - we have some shy people here that don't post often because they potentially feel intimidated by the number of people here as it is, the last thing they need to see is some silly sod neg-spamming them when they actually do post. :3

[Vasco]

Amen. I'll plus that Not that the reputation system is necessarily a good thing but that's all personal opinion. Basically what Professor-J said.

Edited November 17, 2009 by Vasco

[Tornado]

I'm personally rather annoyed that people abuse the system. I've been attempting to posrep people in cases where it is blatantly obvious where the person was negrepped just because he disagreed (regardless of what my personal opinion of the matter is), but if the staff is stepping in to look into it I guess I'll leave it up to them.

Edited November 17, 2009 by Tornado

[T-Bird]

This was such a poor excuse for Dread to gain more points. Booo!

My car battery has also died, which I'm sure will also have something to do with Dread.

T

[Iceman Etika]

My honest opinion? Even though it's rare, it still creates drama. Drama which is unnecessary. The only benefit I can see from this is the fun of saying, WHOO I'm special cause I have all these points!

Before hand, it was posts that made people feel special, quite a few people here I remember would act like they have the largest penises that have ever surfaced in mankind, all because of post count. XD

Like I said, the reputation system creates unnecessary drama. I say down with the reputation system and restore the profile badge system, that was cool and made people feel special without the unnecessary drama, wouldn't you agree?

PLUS IT WAS FOOKIN' COOL

-Iceman

[Tornado]

My honest opinion? Even though it's rare, it still creates drama. Drama which is unnecessary. The only benefit I can see from this is the fun of saying, WHOO I'm special cause I have all these points!

Does this actually happen? I'd imagine those that have truly high reputation don't make it a point to say so (because if they were the type of person to draw attention to such a thing, they probably wouldn't actually have high reputation), and it isn't as if there is some way for people to even know otherwise without going into a person's profile in the first place.

Other than the assholes mentioned in the OP who treat the system as quality by popular vote and negrep accordingly, I don't see how it creates much in the way of drama at all.

That being said, one idea I've been thinking of (that I'm not sure is ever possible in IPB like it is on vBulletin, mind you) is having a comment system for when you rate posts, so one has to justify their repping instead of just doing it and leaving the member confused. That does introduce some problems, but I do think it would help the member increase the quality of his/her posts if they actually understood why the ratings were given.

Edited November 18, 2009 by Tornado

[eXtaticus]

Do we get banned for giving a person ridiculous amounts of positive reputation points as opposed to gratuitously negating them?

I'm just wondering if surplus, spontaneous and systematic +REP love will get me in any kind of trouble...

[Chris]

Do we get banned for giving a person ridiculous amounts of positive reputation points as opposed to gratuitously negating them?

I'm just wondering if surplus, spontaneous and systematic +REP love will get me in any kind of trouble...

There will be no bans or strikes handed out in relation to the reputation system.

[BlazingTales]

I might have seen a few cases of these... but I didn't know it was becoming such a problem. Thanks for pointing this out and I hope we can all think before we Reputate!