rep whoring

Anyone experience this? What did you do to combat it?

I finally turned them off.

I wanted to make myself with massive power so i could punish those that post about it (reps) but could never figure it out.

I turned rep off at the biginning of all my forums. I did so because I saw the rep system as being nothing more then a basis for fights to develop from

On my mboard, I had it one for awhile, and after some consternation I then turned it off. Then a member suggest renaming it to something like "Brownie Points" so I did. After that there hasn't been any issues except they can't "spread" it around thing.

The reputation system creates "clicks", mobs if you will. I stopped hanging out on the forums with it on. I had good rep, but for the most part, it drags a forum down IMO.

Worst vB feature ever.

It is indeed pointless - if you need rep points to evaluate another member, maybe you should just stay away from forums
frequently abused - used to punish people who disagree with you and reward your friends so they can help you punish the people you don't like
meaningless - it tells you nothing about the quality of the information from the member: it's strictly based on popularity and generally those people who amuse get high rep and those who inform do not - at DP, the vast majority of the rep points I have came from General Chat... jokes and comedy, while my posts in the serious theads often get "thank you" in the thread but no rep points... surely for an SEO forum this is backwards (and don't call me Shirley)
annoying - if you doubt this, just look at the number of posts at DP complaining about it: "why did I get red rep for this?" -- the funniest one I got was positive (green) rep (obviously accidental) by an anonymous member who told me I sucked or something along those lines :D

My advice: Turn it off and leave it off.

I concurr completely with minstrial

You mean people are calling you "Shirley" too, Joey? :eek:

It doesn't even rhyme in your case... :confused:

You mean people are calling you "Shirley" too, Joey? :eek:

It doesn't even rhyme in your case... :confused:

Something like that I guess.

IMO the rep system provides no value to the forum, and is a catalyst for fights and bad feelings among forum members.

<serious mode>I understand, Joey... I was just doing one of my routines trying to get more DP rep points :D </serious mode>

In most forums people really don't care about/use it. I have it on in a few places and for the most part it's ignored or not used.

It's nothing more than fun toy.

It's good to try things first and see what works for your forum.

I tried it. Then I tried it so members could decide for themselves. After seeing that many members shut off the reps, I completely disabled it. I always thought, "What's the point in rep points?" but figured they might like the idea.......I was wrong.

I think that it is the thing that destroyed the integrity of some forums I have been a member of, administrators who have engaged in giving me bad reputation when I have contributed to their forums have found that I am willing to quit their forums because of it.

It has never kept me from being critical of other members posts even if they have high reputations, in fact just the opposite, I exposed those who abused the reputation system by posting about the rep whores in the community and still do to this day.

This causes the forum to lose it's editorial integrity and is a form of censorship where high ranking members can form a censorship committee and vote new members off the forum.

It is idiotic to let if get out of hand and forum owners pay the price in the end by having their forums ruined by vain members who vote for each other over and over and over as they seek to take control of the forum by this tactic.

Some of the biggest fools have the highest reputation on forums that are infected with this poison.

Bad reputation points have never stopped me from posting or telling other members what I really think of them, in fact, it has never stopped me from telling administrators what I think of them either!

Reputation doesn't allow anyone to "take control" of a forum, and it surely doesn't ruin the integrity of any forums. It's a novelty that's meant to be used for fun...some people just take it too seriously.

Sure it does when members and administration can vote away your signature, get real man :o

It can be used as a form of control when used like this to ruin a contributor that is not an ass kisser like many of them are, who kiss each others asses for rep points.

It takes away objectivity since members go out of their way to "be nice" to please other high ranking members.

It is a form of forum destruction that does in fact become an automatic censoring device since members are afraid to post their true thoughts for fear of losing their signature or having their reputation affected, this is how editorial integrity is destroyed, funny it never worked that way on me because I straight out tell folks where to go including administrators if they have it coming.

It also is a source of vanity and ego for some fools on the forum circuit and a game they play when they vote for their friends over and over.

Reputation doesn't allow anyone to "take control" of a forum, and it surely doesn't ruin the integrity of any forums. It's a novelty that's meant to be used for fun...some people just take it too seriously.

You are completely mistaken! There are forums where privledges are based on your rep level.

Those forums play out exactly as AC has pointed out in his first post. That is a fact.

The main asset of any forum are the threads and the content created by the members who post on the forum.

I never posted on a forum for a signature or for reputation anyway or to make money from adsense. I have always wanted to create something of value for the reader with my posts even if it was comedy or in a subject thread where I could contribute some intelligence.

If reputation or worries about reputation keep folks from posting objective opinions of another members post because they fear that member might sock them with bad reputation it ruins the editorial integrity of the content.

When members worry about reputation the forum becomes a bunch of fine smelling fluff that readers can see though, they can surely sense the ass kissers club members when they read threads and that keeps forums from true growth which is the editorial integrity of the content.

In addition new members fear being critical of others posts out of fear that the forum members with high reputation that vote for each other will gang up on them.

I've used reputation since starting (renamed to mojo) with great success. I have had to do some shaping to make it a little more user friendly. I.E. Allowing users to totally turn off Mojo/Reputation for themselves (no comments, no black bars). Using javascript alerts for when the users click on the mojo/reputation bars (allows firefox users to read long reputation titles). Mucking with the math to make it take a little longer to get the long mojo bars. Etc.

I've promoted reputation as a Joke, not to be taken seriously. As long as your members understand it's not something to gauge members, but a means to send short messages and have some laughs it shouldn’t be a problem. I have a forum where pretty much anything goes and I haven’t heard any grumblings from reputation abuse. As long as there’s a means for users to opt out, I think it a great catalyst for encouraging new members to sign up.

Here’s some of my reputation comments for different levels.
User will do dirty things with you in the parking lot for a hot smack of that Mojo!
User has spent endless hours on the internet and all they received were two lousy Mojo bars.
User is pimpin that Mojohoe
User has more Mojo than brains
User thinks they make you horny. Yah baby!
User takes forever to finish
User is too good to swallow now
User is only here for the Mojo
User lost that loving feeling
User Has decided not to associate with anyone with less than 500 Mojo Points
User sells blood to finance the next Mojo fix
and so on.

Yeah man, it could be good for a rope growers forum, but for most forums that are cutting edge in their sector and want to create content I think it sucks.

The bottom line is this, if administration does not ban a member and allows them to continue posting they should not at the same time try to destroy that contributor by letting members and management vote them into reputation hell.

I would just ask them to leave or ban them if they are that bad for the forum instead of letting the good old boy network tar and feather them then laugh about it.

I would not mind it a bit if there was a moderator review of the rep points, but some of the moderators are bias toward their friends on forum and play the reputation voting game also.

It is completely unprofessional and silly if you ask me to let a moderator even vote for members reputations in the first place or have members vote for a moderator who can see who is voting for him and will reciprocate.

It is a complete lack of integrity in the administration of the forum and a joke to allow this crap to go on!

You are completely mistaken! There are forums where privledges are based on your rep level.

Those forums play out exactly as AC has pointed out in his first post. That is a fact.

Well, the only privlage of any concern to me is being able to post & read responses :) I could care less about my "rep" in any forum I'm a part of. I just don't think it's all that important. It doesn't influence what I say or do so I guess I have a hard time understanding why someone wouldn't say something that was on their mind becuase of rep. That's just silly imo.

AC, if you're referring to DP, which I assume you are, I don't think it's integrity, growth, or amount of information made available has been hindered at all by the use of the rep system. Then again, I don't pay enough attention to the whole thing to really comment with any level of authority. Just speaking in terms of the number of posts & memebrs - both of which continue to surge.

No the same thing happens on other forums, it happens at SitePoint, it happens at SEOchat, it happens at SEW and other forums.

I know for a fact that SEW with Phil Craven, who between him and his pal Mel have voted each others reputations up real high is guilty of rep abuse. When I started getting critical of both of them and their friend and fellow criminal William Cross they were able to vote me to a -42 from a +10 within a few minutes. SEW also censored a great thread that was going to protect these high reputation members Phil C & Mel and that is really sad because I have never posted there again because of this stupidity that they allow!

The moderators went in and removed 10 negative points that were given in spite, so it is not only at DP that this crap happens.

The main problem I had at DP was not with the members but with Shawn voting against me over and over for shooting back at idiots like Compar who came in and attacked me for no reason other than to garner attention for himself. Shawn himself abuses the reputation system and I posted that right on his forum when he hit me over and over the same day and for over 100 points within a month or so.

Posts were also removed that were critical of this since my post count was 10,254 when I left and the total is lower now.

Perception is everything I guess. But I have changed my posting habits as a result of rep being used at forums. For the record, I'm not negetive, no where near negetive in rep on the forums I used to frequent. I just find the whole thing distasteful.

It's for egos and by egos. I'm secure enough and don't need green bars to assert that. But I have them out there, so I must be cool?

Well this thread is not about if you and I are worthy of a great or poor reputation, but if forums allow this to ruin their forums and destroy a members perceived integrity or raise a members reputation falsely.

I think that it ruins the forums integrity and not the members that are voted against, in fact more of the forums integrity is lost by letting members falsely vote for their buddies over and over on the positive side when they make run of the mill posts on a daily basis.

I'm too cool for rep and my new avatar proves it! :D :wave:

Great avatar, nice bike!

I just hope forum owners can see how this issue can hurt a forum if it is not managed properly because it is a major distraction and is a silly thing for a forum contributor to worry about.

I tried it at the Motorcycle Forum (http://www.riderinfo.com/) and it was used like 3 times. All for the good, but then just ignored. I tunred it off last week after having it there about six months. That crowd didn't care about it or use it.

That crowd didn't care about it or use it.

Same goes for my sports and game forums...it's used by 1 or 2 people but 99% of people just don't care. Maybe it's just webmasters and webmaster related forums that give a hoot about it.

Same goes for my sports and game forums...it's used by 1 or 2 people but 99% of people just don't care. Maybe it's just webmasters and webmaster related forums that give a hoot about it.
There's no rhyme or reason to some things in life.

When I first got on Digital Point and provided clear facts that folks could not dispute because the links were from Google themselves, (most of the members being complete Google loving fools) could not believe that Google was spamming their own search index so they started attacking me by reputation simply because the entire forum tried to stand up and defend Google and had no legs to stand on.

SEbasic was so desperate to prove me wrong so he could be the hero and save face for the forum, that he had Minstrel do an analysis of my posts so he could claim that I was insane.

So there are folks out there that will go to any extreme to prove themselves right even when they are wrong, if they can't do this, they then gang rape the poster with bad reputation, it even got to the point where folks were sending PM's to the rest of the forum members to have them all vote against me.

Well by the end of that night I was in the hole about -79 and Shawn let it happen when I first joined and he let it happen again (voted me down himself) when I left.

Being right, even if you can "prove" it, is a matter of perception. Perception is hard to fight.

Just pick your battles and move along. Remember, ignorance is bliss. :)

SEbasic was so desperate to prove me wrong so he could be the hero and save face for the forum, that he had Minstrel do an analysis of my posts so he could claim that I was insane.


Surely you're kidding :confused:

Not at all, go read the thread "I'd rather live in a Zoo" and you will find most of the story I just told.

Not at all, go read the thread "I'd rather live in a Zoo" and you will find most of the story I just told.

I'll just take your word for it. My guess is that is one of those 300 page threads :eek:

We're all a little crazy anyways so I don't think I would learn much from reading it :D

that thread is a good lesson in post whoring

that thread is a good lesson in post whoring

Well, if DP was up I might check it out. I have some time to kill this afternoon........

Rep whoring, post whoring....the forum cirucit really is dirty huh? ;)

Its up now - Down for about 4 hours - Shawn must be in a real good mood :)

I resent being called a post whore Joey!!!! ;)

PS: Compar was the only whore in that thread :D

that thread is a good lesson in post whoringAnd a pretty good lesson in trolling too I seem to remember...

You really are sore about that huh Anthony...

For the record - Yeah, you ****ed me off a lot at DP, but I was not and never have been a member of any "Rep Network"...

It's your tin hat again mate. :)

Yeah SE, you and yfs1 did a great job at it in addition to taking cheap shots at me to garner attention for yourselves, go back and read the thread with that idiot con man Mick Sawyer in it (White Hat, Black Hat), where you and "your favorite smart ass1" came in to troll and insult for no reason!!!

You were real good at trolling for sure!!!

Ahhhhhhh is *this* the thread you are talking about?
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=17517

You mean the thread where you were offering *really* important and helpful insight into the world of "BH" SEO - Gee Anthony - you must be right...

Anyway - I *really* don't want to start arguing with you again, so I think I'll just add you to my ignore list here too :)

Yeah, it is a great illustration of a couple of jerks, you and yfs1 that are complete rep whores that vote for each other and hold themselves as experts.

This is the one where you come in with petty insults and your buddy "Your Favorite Smart Ass1" comes in and claims that I ruined a thread that got over a thousand views in about a half hour.

Face it SE, you guys jumped in because you both are attention seeking arses!!!

PS: Yeah it is also the thread where yfs1 (the fraud that he is), came in and fabricated a false quote with Compar's name on it, then when I called him on it he removed it or his Buddy TOPS removed it to protect the " DP rep whore gang". Yeah you can see TOPS come in and defend the both of you also, a great moderator he is alright :rolleyes:

I hope I don't have to repeat this again, but as I have said before, we talk about things, not people. The thing here is the rep system, not who uses it in particular and maybe how "they" in general used it.

This is about people now and we need to get back on topic. This place is not to be used to get revenge on folks in our past. Let's not go around in circles AC. We have discussed this many times.

Thanks

Looks like a real life story to me that has a lot to do with rep whores.

AC, the solution is easy, don't participate in conversations that are so sensitive. Don't argue your point to death. Don't go to those forums. And most certaily don't go to other forums and continue knocking people. That puts you in a bad light and trust me, even if your point was valid, others will see you as a sore loser and dismiss you arbitraily.

So the truth is something that should be hidden so we can be popular?

Maybe the thread should be censored to make folks happy!!!!

Your truth is not necessarily everyone's truth. And as I said, this is not the place to sort it out. Go there and sort it out if your arguement is so strong.

And yes, if personal attacks are prevelent, there will be censorship.

Thanks

The truth is the truth, no one owns the truth, it is simply hidden or told!

I may as well talk to a wall. Oh well.

If you want me to hold back I will Noppid, or if you want me to quit posting here I will also.

I just don't understand it, you and I have always got on real good man :rolleyes: :D

I agree we get along. However, you have to step back and realize, what is an issue for you may not be an issue that is appropreate to air out here.

I just want to keep the peace. I'm not implying your issue is not real, just that this may not be the place for it.

Funny that Shawn let the **** fly at DP and that is why the forum grew!

I don't like a lot of the stuff that happened recently but I don't post there so I really have no great interest in the forum any longer because of some of these things.

But the forum circuit is a living thing and word will get out on the players, it does not matter if it happens here or on some other board!