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Tact is for those who aren't witty enough to be sarcastic.
No use cryin' over Spillt Milk
Posted by: x Foman123 x
Posted by: Fluke Hawkins
Rep, however, I want to defend. @ SS_Zag: What do you mean by user feedback? What I'm thinking is V_Bulliten style rep: You like the post, you +rep, you don't, you -rep. Personally, I think that a big red bar underneath somebody's name would tell people "Don't be like this guy, he's a idiot" and a big green bar underneath somebody's name would say "This guy is awesome. Listen and aspire to be like him."
No, sorry Fluke. I like the general thought behind your idea and I think that the purposes behind it are noble ones. But this is not a simple matter of sticking a reputation button under every post.
As you've proposed it, with no checks or balances, your reputation system open to the general public here would be a disaster. Here's why:
Vendettas
Sometimes arguments here can get heated. No matter what the particular forum -- Halo 2, Halo 3, the Flood, the Septagon, or anywhere else, people can get into pretty intense debates. Moreover, some people dislike others based purely on that person's opinions.
For example: try going to the Halo 3 forum and making a post about Halo 1 being better than Halo 2, or vice versa. You will get flamed and insulted into oblivion. Were there to be a reputation system, every person who disliked your opinion would vote "-Rep." A couple dozen of these could completely ruin a reputation that you worked hard to build up.
Do you really want to have to self-censor and avoid talking about certain topics just to preserve some phony reputation? I sure don't.
Multiple Accounts
This site has a rather unique problem with some individuals creating dozens of multiple accounts that they use for either neutral or nefarious purposes (depending on the person). A reputation system would -- and there is no dispute about this -- encourage even more of this kind of behavior, as users created multiple accounts just to give themselves a better reputation.
These users might even try to justify it -- "I'm just trying to get my reputation back up after those spammers with the vendetta destroyed it in my H1 > H2 post."
Creating a system that encourages people to break the rules is never a good idea, and if this reputation system were to be implemented in the way you propose, I think that you'd see an explosion of alternate accounts, which in turn could lead to spamming, excessive flaming, and other violations of the rules.
Arrogance
I never use the word "elitism," but I am referring to the same idea that other posters have ascribed to this term. In other words, with a reputation system, you would see an explosion of posts that state something along the lines of:Posted by: CompleteJerk789
Uh you're a complete blam so get off this site and never come back... I see that Fluke has a reputation of 4 green bars while you only have a 1 red-bar reputation so STFU GTFO blam blam blam etc.These forums should never breed arrogance or "elitism," and a user should never be evaluated on what amounts to a popularity contest.
In Conclusion
Even worse, the end result of all of these problems negates the entire purpose of a reputation system in the first place. I see no need for a "rep" system if that system's integrity is undermined by spammers, alt accounts, troublemakers, and what amounts to "cheaters."
The idea of giving rewards for "good posts" and "trustworthy users" is one that has been stated time and time again here to be a well-intentioned one. Indeed, Achronos has stated that an internal, invisible algorithm is currently rating users to determine their trustworthiness, and that this system may or may not eventually evolve into some kinds of ratings-and-rewards system that is actually visible to us users. But any idea along these lines must be subjected to the unique issues and problems to be seen on these forums, and needs careful thought to be sure that it's a worthwhile and useful tool rather than superficial flamebait.
Jeez...
Take a breath.