Introducing: The Forum Reputation System

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Originally Posted by forever10

The reputation tab is still not there in my profile? Does anyone see mine?

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Nope. Have you received any rep? It only appears once you've received one vote, either up or down.

You know if you've received a vote because you get a notification at the top, like for a PM or VM.

Once someone give you a point +/- it will show up.

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Originally Posted by OnyxDS

It is a voting system - if other people don't agree with the downvoters you might still end up ahead.



Remember that downvotes never stop anyone posting. Even if someone picks up hundreds of downvotes it won't stop them saying whatever they want. All that will happen is that they'll eventually get a little red blob under their name indicating that their posts are low quality.

Not referring to anyone here in particular, but there have been people who post an awful lot of junk. Not necessarily outside the rules, but really adding nothing. Or always being argumentative - and if not toxic or vulgar it doesn't break any rules, but it doesn't make the forum a better place. The rep system lets the other users express their opinion that those posts are worthless. If the poster is the sort of person who likes to talk on and on when everyone around them is yawning visibly, then the system doesn't stop them doing so. But it lets the readers signal that the posts are not making the better forum for them, and most posters will modify their behaviour.

But it doesn't mean you can't say anything in particular. For example, I thought it was inevitable that someone would jump on my previous post and downvote it - and it duly happened. But I still think what I said was correct, so that doesn't need to stop me saying it (ie that if people are seeing a poster keep repeating what's already been said in a thread to boost posts, it's a fair downvote - I didn't look at Xtreme's specific posts, so I don't know whether they were specifically valid - but expressing displeasure with what someone thought was post-spamming is exactly what the rep system is for)


Even though I was the victim here, and got an upvote grey-dotted, I would say it's an essential filter. It stops some poster with starting rep, who rages out and picks up a load of downvotes from going through and doing a pointless retaliation downvote to everyone.

(And in this case it seems someone has upvoted you since - and it wasn't me - so your votes have effect again in future)

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Except it specifically does. Social conditioning gets all wanting that positive reinforcement from our peers and cause modification of behaviors.

It's even listed in the OPs purpose, to clean up toxic rudey pants I believe is how it as put.

For some, you for example it may not matter, but for others it's clearly a source of frustration disappointment and censorship.

I'd also be careful in thinking that anyone posts are worthless. It is after all all about communication.

You guys should think of an idea to fix the situation of subforum instead of this. Set a right priority. This kind of system is how democracy fails. When the dumbs are majority you goes downhills.

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Originally Posted by Lextalionist

You guys should think of an idea to fix the situation of subforum instead of this. Set a right priority. This kind of system is how democracy fails. When the dumbs are majority you goes downhills.

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Cmon, this is like the forum version of the December 2015 update. Huge promises unexpected changes & shock. :smirk:

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Originally Posted by ProfChaos

For some, you for example it may not matter, but for others it's clearly a source of frustration disappointment and censorship.

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But the censorship may not be a bad thing. Certainly in some of the cases of people complaining about "unfair" downvotes it has sounded like some adjustment of what the complainant was posting might not be a bad thing. And in the cases of people getting downvotes from people disagreeing in the highly emotive subjects such as engineering - again those often end up as pointless flame wars, so a strong degree of caution posting in those situations might not be bad.

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I'd also be careful in thinking that anyone posts are worthless. It is after all all about communication.

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It depends what SC want from the forum. Someone earlier mentioned FB as a much bigger/better company only using upvotes. But there is a fundamental difference - FB wants volume of posts and readership to sell ads. Quality makes little difference to them; they need people to use FB as much as possible.

But SC's motivation for the forum is probably more that it acts as part of the game support - somewhere people can ask questions when they get stuck/confused. They may feel that quality is much more important to them than quantity, and may not care if rep inhibits people from expressing opinions, especially on topics that lead to flame wars. They might not care if total post counts on the forum drop significantly, IF they also feel that better advice is available to those asking for it.

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Originally Posted by OnyxDS

But SC's motivation for the forum is probably more that it acts as part of the game support - somewhere people can ask questions when they get stuck/confused. They may feel that quality is much more important to them than quantity, and may not care if rep inhibits people from expressing opinions, especially on topics that lead to flame wars. They might not care if total post counts on the forum drop significantly, IF they also feel that better advice is available to those asking for it.

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Speaking of quality

Forum already has people with badges (that for some is sign of quality/ truth wordiness) Game Specialist and Moderators that say: offensive weight is not visible in game. Period #alternativefacts

And Blombardos of the forum that speak with tons of confidence may or may not convince forumites that his/her findings are the truth and nothing but the truth hence here's a rep for you mister!

So good luck to people out there finding quality info with badges and reputations getting in the way.

What happens if a fresh spawn downvotes me and i gain neutral rep then over a month that person posts at least 100 posts/replies, does that neutral rep that i have gain an integer value or does it remain neutral forever.

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Originally Posted by ReplicantRachel

So good luck to people out there finding quality info with badges and reputations getting in the way.

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I understand where confusion may come in. I said when this first rolled out, if you frequent the forums enough you'll know who's post carries merit and who's don't.

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Originally Posted by ReplicantRachel

And Blombardos of the forum that speak with tons of confidence may or may not convince forumites that his/her findings are the truth and nothing but the truth hence here's a rep for you mister!

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You're speaking about an abstract - saying that rep is flawed because someone might post a lot of nonsense and get upvoted heavily. Has it actually happened?

And for the specific case that you mention... Would you upvote or downvote him? I wouldn't have upvoted and would likely have downvoted some posts that were emphatically repeating falsehoods despite plenty of contrary evidence being provided. And I doubt I'm the only one - I know from PMs that a number of people got exasperated with some of those posts.
And do you really think his insistence that the game is utterly broken because he can't get a 100% perfect war, every war, without any planning on any of his attacks would get a lot of upvotes in the climate?

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Originally Posted by Zelonius

What happens if a fresh spawn downvotes me and i gain neutral rep then over a month that person posts at least 100 posts/replies, does that neutral rep that i have gain an integer value or does it remain neutral forever.

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It stays grey. I got an upvote from someone on 49 posts; it remained grey as they continued posting.