Disabling rep as a cop out...

Rodéric said:
Be assured that it's gonna change.
Click to expand...

Forgive me but, any hints on what plans are for changing it?

Do you plan to simply remove the entire system, or restrict it to people with certain postcounts or membership times/status?

I'd be more for a system that allows users to perhaps award points to a particular post based on how helpfull/insightfull it was (if that's possible, mind you). If that could happen, perhaps there could be a button in place of the current reputation bar that displays a list of that users recommended postings? (Again, if possible).
 
Sobek said:
Forgive me but, any hints on what plans are for changing it?

Do you plan to simply remove the entire system, or restrict it to people with certain postcounts or membership times/status?

I'd be more for a system that allows users to perhaps award points to a particular post based on how helpfull/insightfull it was (if that's possible, mind you). If that could happen, perhaps there could be a button in place of the current reputation bar that displays a list of that users recommended postings? (Again, if possible).
Click to expand...

As Geo said, nothing is set yet, we have different proposal, one being close to what Xmas and yourself are asking.
 
I've had mine disabled forever. Have no idea whether it is good or bad. I don't care... it looked like rep was just a popularity contest, and I have no interest in that game.

I once had an interesting idea for something that would replace post counts, but not the rep system. Hmm... maybe I'll dig that up from the Rage3d archives if I can find it.
 
lol, I found that old post so here it is for your entertainment. It was an idea for replacing postcounts on forums where that seemed to be the driving factor for spamming insidiously with short, irrelevant posts. It wound up defining spammers and good contributing members based on obviously the length of their posts, not the quality. I must have been very, very bored! In any case...

Rating = (PC x MACh) x [((MACh / FACh) - 1) x (MPPD / FPPD) + 1]

PC = Member's postcount
MACh = Member's average characters per post (post length)
FACh = Forum's average characters per post (post length)
MPPD = Member's average number of posts per day
FPPD = Forum's average number of posts per day (per user)


Now, my rationale behind the equation:

(PC x MACh) x [((MACh / FACh) - 1) x (MPPD / FPPD) + 1]

(PC x MACh) This is simply the product of number of posts and average characters per post giving the total number of characters posted by a given user. I'll call this "bulk volume."


(PC x MACh) x [((MACh / FACh) - 1) x (MPPD / FPPD) + 1]

(MACh / FACh) This is the ratio of a member's average characters per post to the forum's average characters per post. The result is greater than one if a user is above average in post length, and less than one if they are below average. Subtracting 1 from this term gives the "percent above or below" the forum average. Therefore, above average members are positive, below average members are negative. This is important. I'll call this the "post rating."


(PC x MACh) x [((MACh / FACh) - 1) x (MPPD / FPPD) + 1]

(MPPD / FPPD) This is the ratio of a member's post per day average and that of the forum's post per day (per user) average. A value greater than one means they post more often than the average user, less than one means less often. Call this their "post frequency."


(PC x MACh) x [[red]((MACh / FACh) - 1) x (MPPD / FPPD)[/red] + 1]

((MACh / FACh) - 1) x (MPPD / FPPD) This is the interesting part. Recall that the first term, the "post rating," can returen a positive, zero, or negative value. Multiplying this by the member's relative "post frequency" has a most curious result, which I call the member's "spam rating."

If a member has an average post length roughly the same as the forum average, then the first term will be nearly zero. No matter how frequently or infrequently they post, the product of the two will remain close to zero.

If a member has an above average post length, then their "post rating" will be positive. If they post infrequently (relative to the forum average), then that positive number will be reduced (but still positive). If they post frequently, then that positive number will be increased accordingly.

If a member has a below average post length, then their "post rating" will be neagive. If they post infrequently, it will become "less negative," and if they post frequently, it will become "more negative."

It is important to note that post frequency can't change a negative "post rating" into a positive "spam rating" or positive "post rating" into a negative "spam rating." It can only increase or decrease the maginitude of the positive or negative value.

I think this part of the equation very nicely captures the essence of what defines "spam." Intuitively, if a member posts fairly long messages, then a high post rate indicates very useful activity in the forum, and their "spam rating" will be significantly greater than zero (good). If they're posting fairly short messages at a high rate, then it is likely a great many of them fall under the "spam" category, and their "spam rating" will be significantly less than zero (bad).

For members that have average post length, no rate of posting can effect their "spam rating," as it hovers near zero (as it should). For members that post infrequently (or have been around for ages), then the effect of their average post length is reduced, and their "spam rating" is brought closer to zero.

The final term is the addition of a "1" resulting in a percentage of their "bulk volume" that is returned by the equation. For spammers, their bulk volume is reduced by their "spam rating," and for members who spend a great deal of time on posts their "bulk volume" is increased. Put simply, if you post short posts, then posting often hurts you. If you post long posts, then posting often helps you. The baseline is members with average post length, in which case post frequcency doesn't matter, and their "bulk volume" is unmodified (as it should be for an average poster).
Click to expand...
 
And all without regard to the content of the posts. Truly, statistics can be worthless at times. :smile:
 
Well I'll just say the rep system has encouraged me somewhat :)

Often times I've gone to more effort than I really should have, trying to at least provide a smile :)
Sure it often doesn't work, but at times it is revealing and fulfilling. The actual comments are more important here. (I have yet to find out who it was that is making the baking RPG :p)

Often I've spent an hour mucking about, making an image or such to pad out a post. Just for the hell of it :)
It's often nice to know that you tweaked someones sense of humour, or been useful. Although that said, you can't underestimate the power of kittens.

:mrgreen: :mrgreen:
 
According to more than one developer my rep count proves the system sucks :runaway: -- and that includes my 6 month hiatus when the rep system was first implimented. :cool: I agree with the original poster that a few posters disabled rep so they could continue their snarky ways but ho hum, that is how it is. Rep can be fun, I like seeing comments that I otherwise wouldn't get, but it is worthless as a means to weeding out good and bad posters. Content alone really dictates that. Maybe someday developers/industry people and people like Rys and Arun can get pointed out from the flock of also rans like myself :smile:

I had to use one more smily to hit my limit. Forum abuse I know... just like rep. :devilish:
 
Jawed said:
I don't understand why staff have rep. How meaningless is that?

Jawed
Click to expand...

Pretty meaningless. Tho if we turned it off some smartass would say it was because we were afraid of receiving neg rep. So its a bit of psychological "the owner should be seen eating at the restaurant" theory.
 
Maybe, but nearly two years in it is what it is. I think Something Will Be Done re Rep in the next few months, so no real point in piece-mealing it at this point.
 
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