Ok, when I first heard about reputation I wasn't that thrilled cuz I don't want folk who don't know me dinging me (I'm assuming folk who know me aren't dinging me ; well hopefully not, and Violist if I was the Sharon you were referring to, thanks dear!. Quite frankly I'm not willing to ding others - or heck most of the time even post a reputation point - my clients are already wondering why I spend so much time on FT, er - I mean meetings

But since then I decided I don't really care. Love me, don't love me, post positive, don't post positive. The reality is I don't pay attention to the little squares, triangles, colors (whatever all the other stuff is) when I'm reading other folks posts on forums, and I think for the most part the folk who have been around on FT the longest don't pay attention either. I've gotten to know folk through their posts & that matters more to me than some silly thing by their name. I judge them & they me by that more than rep pts - or, all sides have 'earned' their reps & not through rep pts. And again, this was originally meant only for Coupon Connection & hopefully will eventually be sorted out & just continued for that.

And I'm absolutely stunned by how many posts there are by folk who are getting negative dings who say it doesn't matter to them about the negatives but then continue to post that they don't care! Well, if you don't care, then quit responding or posting about the negative dings already!!!! Geesh. Some of the folk who are posting about the negatives have lots of posts & have earned my respect, even if we disagree at times, but go back to the forums already. I could use your wisdom & insight there on hotel & airline programs. Quit wasting your time about the stoo-pid reputation thing.

BTW - my above statement is NOT to be confused w/ folk who post negatives & then say they're someone else in the post. That to me is unethical & not cool!!!! It's one thing to post as yourself; it's another to post as someone else.

To date I've had no negatives (that I can tell; the entire reputation thing is a bit confusing to me & quite frankly I'm traveling enough, reading the forums is more important than sorting out the intracacies of reps. Watch; right after posting this thread I'll get my first negative ), but even though I've had only positive rep points, a lot of them are anonymous. So it doesn't surprise me that both positive & negatives are posted anonymously for other folks. It happens.

Bottom line - YOU have to look in the mirror every day. If you think you're worthwhile & are adding value to the world & to FT, then let it go re: rep pts, both good or bad.

RobotDoctor loves Bling and dislikes Ding.

Bling =

Ding =

Perhaps. Seems like it would make more sense to challenge the post publicly than to flame via the anonymous ding.

But thanks very much for the tip. ^ You are a veritable fountain of knowledge.

Have a great weekend.

I understand that if you have less then 20 reputation points, any reputation you give - positive or negative - will be grey and will not affect the reputation of the person you are giving it to.

However, once you reach 20 points, does that reputation change to reflect what was intended? Or does it remain grey forever?

That could lead into one of those situations of the kind that make SciFi so popular (if I go back in time and kill my great grandfather, I will never be born, so how can I kill him?)

Let's assume that you have 18 points and I have 21. You ding me, but it doesn't count because you have less than 20. I then give you a positive hit, putting you over 20.

Your ding then becomes effective, I go under 20, so my ratings become invalid retroactively, meaning that you don't have 20 and your ding on me did not count, now I do have 20 and my rating does count...ad infinitum.

I suppose it depends how the system is designed.

If it works in "real-time", then yes our reputation counts would rise and fall as grey boxes convert to green/red and then back again.

If it is a "one-time" change, then once you're point level reaches or surpasses 20, then a sweep is made that converts all greys to the appropriate green or red, as necessary.

I guess it depends on what the system is designed to do, or what back-end programming might be required to implement it.

I'll just keep making sure I note why I gave reputation so the recipient knows what I intended when my point total is lower then 20.

My ding story of the day....

I offered someone advise on coupon connection regarding a fully transferrable coupon that no one had shown any trading interest.

As a matter of fact, I suggested he do what I ended up doing with it.. sell it on Ebay. Again, this is perfectly legal.

I got a very nice PM from him with thanks and he also asked for advise for creating the listing, which I gave. This was earlier in the week.

Someone dinged the post last night. Again, it was someone without any point power, so it didn't effect me. I honestly doubt it was the very nice person I communicated with.

So, as with others, I offer good advise and get a ding from some annonymous coward in return.

I have a feeling Randy is going to address this after the Freddies. I'm sure he has his hands full the past several weeks. I don't think he's posted since the software switch.

Plus, he might be getting a well deserved rest from all of us .

Out of pure curiosity, are you sure it was a "ding" ? If it was "grey" you wouldn't know whether it was intended to be approval or disapproval from the color of the box. It might have been the person you befriended saying "thanks" but not knowing you wouldn't know it was him.

Unless, of course, the anonymous critic left a message but didn't sign it?

All the folks posting on the thread have point power. Every positive I've gotten always has a nice note attached. I think I've received 1 red ding and a few grey. The reds & the greys don't have a message.

I'm taking the greys as negatives because of my history.

BUT, I could be wrong. I usually try to look on the bright side, but after reading what has been going on... well, let's just say I glad I got someone upset .

I'm so confused about this reputation stuff. How do you see other people's reputation?

You can not see anyone else's reputation, which is why I think it is so ridiculous for people to get upset if they have a bad one. Nobody will ever know!

If you can't see other people's reputation, then this whole rep thing makes no sense to me. On ebay, you can see comments from previous bidders and sellers. What good is the flyertalk version of rep points then?

Alysia, you are right. It makes no sense.

Randy had the intention of having it used just for the Coupon Connection and, originally, you could see everyone's rep. But Flyer Talk is not E-Bay, and things didn't work out as Randy intended. When a number of people complained, the reps were removed from public view. (Although you can get some idea by the number of green boxes a person has under his name. The more boxes, the better the rep.)

Still, it is just a game that we are playing and makes no real difference. I (and I am sure most other F/Ters) base my respect or lack of respect for someone on what he says -- not on what others might think about him.

Mary, the gray one simply means that the person who gave you the feedback don't have the qualifications to do so yet (either not enough posts or reputation points). So it could have been positive or negative (but you won't know because it doesn't influence your overall reputation). So look on the bright side and consider them all as positive.

Well... just wait until Monday.

If you have read the latest TalkMail, you will understand.

All those Red dings will be identified.

William