To be honest I am ambivalent about the reputation ability on FT to change members perceptions of other posters. At the same time though I am not ambivalent about abusers of FT in any manner.

Will having reputation available or not raise or lower the abusers ability? I think not. Will having a high or low reputation change my perception of one's post?

Realize that my opinion will be different on what the reputation of someone should be - after all I have a different life experience and will most surely come to a different conclusion than some. (Have to admit sometimes I agree with others.)

Simply put it is not going to matter to me one iota if someones reputation is high, low, on or off. They are going to have to continue to post in a manner that I find reputable for me to find them reputable.

gone?
 

Looks like all the "reputations" just disappeared. Anyone know if that is temporary or permanent?

I think if they do come back the actual descriptions should be changed-- they don't make much sense currently, or give any consistently good idea of how someone is "rated" by the community-- they are to fortune-cookie like currently.

But over-all, I still like the system.

X is a member of Flyertalk
 

Thank you Randy for vastly improving my FT experience by ending the popularity contest. Hopefully, this is a permanant change. It's what you know (and share)... not who you know, that really counts.

RWW

Reputation is still there for me.

Are you sure you were logged in when you were looking. No "Scale" over to the left if you're not logged in.

Edited to add...Okay...I think I understand what you were posting about now. Looks like everyone has the same reputation pop-up message now.

They just changed the message to a generic "CameraGuy is a member of FT".

For the life of me, I don't know why they don't just disable the feature.

Maybe they haven't been able to find the switch yet or are too busy with other matters?

Regardless...thanks Randy and staff!

I don't really mind having feedback with this rep thing... I appreciate constructive critisism. If I post something and it disturbs someone else, I would like to know, preferably with comments. I just don't think this needs to be announced to the entire forum (barring an extreme case, and we have the "report post" option available for that). In my case, one ding put me in the doghouse. I'm guessing others, not familiar with how this works (or worked) are unaware how easily people can be abused. It only takes one person having a bad day. This may be no big deal if you have been here long enough to have a following of friends willing to up your rep back to favored status. A new person here is SOL and particulary vulnerable.

RWW

Really? I just clicked on Camera Guy's little black square and it says:

"Camera Guy has a disabled reputation"

;)

Randy seems to have clarified this "Reputation" nonsense ........
 

Randy Petersen
Founding Member


Join Date: May 1998
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
Posts: 2,293

I'll save you all the trouble....

while trying to isolate the servers performance for a better FT experience for you all i came upon this thread. Really what we had in mind, in case you haven't come across it, the reputation is designed only for The Coupon Connection forum to help members who may find themselves engaged in a trade or exchange with another member they don't know. You may or may not appreciate this but just in case, I'm going to have to take this thread down. One thing about reputations - no rating in the world will likely change the reputation you earn by the quality of the posts you start... and contribute to.

I found this final comment from Randy earlier today (bolding emphasis mine) before he consigned the absurd 'Positive reputation points conga' thread into the "Misposted Threads" bin. (After it had been moved from S.P.A.M. to OMNI.)

I think Randy's comments above answer many of the questions on this thread.

Agree that for Coupon Connection (only) this might make some sense for some users. I have always found checking the previous posts and length of time on FT before responding to anyone in CC was very good policy and pretty quickly done.

Whether follks can ONLY post these "reputations" due to posts and transactions in CC remains to be seen - I suspect not, so I still wonder why the function needs to be enabled at all.

Indeed, but the reputation "meters" still vary. For example, PremEx still has 2 green "dots" rather than 1. Someone else I've seen about has 3. Someone from WebFlyer also mentioned that there is a lower point than the default as well - perhaps a yellow or red dot? I've not seen it on anyone, though.

I suspect we are on our way to a permanent elimination of the feature from all posts besides Coupon Connection. Private messages might be an alternate way (though not anonymous) to provide members with feedback on their posts.

Why I posted the 'positive conga' thread
 

At the time I started the conga, people on THIS thread were complaining about negative points abuse. I posted the conga to encourage people to use the positive points as well. I never intended the conga to inflate my (or anyone's) point count. The conga 'users' were only supposed to give ONE point, to the ONE previous user.
I ended up with 7 positive and 2 negative responses, 3 of the positives were signed, the rest of the posts were anonymous, including the one insult directed toward my intellectual capacity. Hardly a windfall, reputation wise. If Randy wants to take those points back, he is welcome to them, since they are TOTALLY MEANINGLESS anyway.
Unless 'Reputation points' are DIRECTLY linked to SPECIFIC transactions in the CC, there will always be abuse, rendering the point counts eroneous. I don't think Randy want's to change the CC from an open exchange to a brokered transacton like ebay, so I have my doubts as to the ultimate legitimacy of the point system.
On ebay, I have nearly 2000 positive comments over five years, and zero negative, and each feedback comment is atributable to a specific user. It's called ACCOUNTABILITY. On 'the new FT', I got anonymous negative rep' before I ever logged in, and I've NEVER EVEN USED the coupon connection (& no, I don't need Randy to identify the 'dude who left it, I've already figured that out). I think THAT'S more absurd than the conga. IMO, if the system is going to be JUST for the CC, then all of the non CC posts & points should be removed.
P.S.-I don't miss the conga. It had already served it's purpose.
P.P.S-I'm kinda' honored that Randy took the time to close the conga personally! :D

Reputation points only increase load on the server...
 

...I see no other redeeming value outside of the Coupon Connection as long as BOTH receiving and acquiring is limited to it and preferably based on a transaction. On the other hand, this increases the load on the server with threads like these and people checking/granting these points.

The main problem with the reputation points is it is quite meaningless to anyone who sees it.

If it is negative, you don't know if it is because someone writes a lot of posts with content but are controversial and there are people who disagree or because the poster is harmless while posting inconsequential stuff or if the poster is a jerk.

If it is positive, you don't know if it is because one has had a positive contribution, or one is simply an apologist posting platitudes collecting recommendations from other apologists or someone who has no content whatsoever but is nice/flattering to others or someone who is nasty to another poster that is disliked.

So the bottom line is that one has to decide for themselves based on posts, so what is the value of the reputation point other than one being one more usefless feature increasing the load on the server for any board outside of Coupon Connection. I hope both acquiring and displaying is limited to that board and that it is not anonymous.

This feature is better suited for juvenile talkboards where reputation and cliques are everything.

This whole thing has been fun!

Sure enough, got one anonymous ding when I posted an anti-war message on OMNI. It was unsigned, of course.

Got a few positive ones signed.

Like most others, I was pleased by the positive ones. and for a moment didn't like seeing the ding. I was surprised by how much I didn't like the ding and even by how much I liked seeing the positives.

We are a bunch of sensitive souls, no?

That there is so much buzz about this feature is enough reason to take it down, IMHO. It is clear that whether we should or shouldn't many people do want to feel for themselves that they are a positive part of this community. Since it is not important to keep a running score, let's not.

Best wishes.

I stay off OMNI and generally try not to be argumenative and don't try to get in the last word. So chances are I won't be racking up the points - positive or negative.

One area where I think reputation comments - signed or anonymous - is helpful to me is providing feedback on what I am saying. If I get a bunch of negatives on a thread I commented to, I see it as a hint that what I said might not be correct. If I get a bunch of positives, then I see it as a hint that people found it of value.

And if someone has a serious issue to what I said, doing it in a reputation comment might cut down on the flame fronts. For even if I feel that critique is justified (I have pulled some boners now and then), if they post it publically in the thread as a reply, someone else might not and pillory them, which leads to a counter-attack, draws more people in for and against, and quickly leads to the moderators closing the thread.

If I don't agree with the criticism, well BFD. I can ignore it. If one person thinks my comments sucked, and the others thought they didn't, well everyone has an opinion.

I don't engage in the social aspects of FlyerTalk (chat and OMNI), so when I post, it's to provide an opinion (hopefully an informed one) or answer a question/provide information.

I joined to learn. I stay to teach. It's the body of work that will determine my "reputation" amongst my fellow members, not a little dot or a post count under my name...

(Edited to delete a comment due to new information on the color of the reputation codes)

I agree with this, except it shouldn't be anonymous. Accountability should be automatic, just like posting to a thread. You post it, your user name should be on it. Period. If the comments are to have any meaning, we *MUST* all be allowed to consider the source of said comments.