Now that the * system has been removed, I don't know how much of a necessity it is to come up with a replacement, but here is an idea that I really like.

I have recently started using the bodybuilding.com forums, and I really like their "Reputation System." Here is the basic outline of how it works:

Every poster has a little section below their avatar showing the amount of reputation they have. For every post someone makes, other posters have the option of giving it positive or negative reputation, which makes the original poster's overall reputation go either up or down. A poster with a highly positive reputation will have a lot of rep points, and green bars by their name indicating this. A poster who is given a lot of negative reputation with have negative points and red bars by their name.

Each poster's ability to give out reputation is also different. On BB.com the method they use is you earn 1 additional point of rep-altering power for every 1000 posts, 1 point for every year you have been a member of the forum, and 1 point for every 1000 positive reputation points that he/she has received themself. This way, the posters who have been around the longest, have the most posts, and the most positive reputation are able to have the most influence on others' reps. A person with an overall negative reputation has 0 rep-altering power.

That is a basic outline of the system. There are other measures in place to limit abuse of the system. Full details can be found in the FAQ on the bodybuilding.com forums. I think this system would be especially useful for the strategy forums, and being able to identify good posters.

This would obviously require a software update in order to implement, and I have no idea how difficult the logistics of this would be.

You mean allowing the forum as a whole to decide if someone is a good or bad poster? Rather than the subjective opinion of a single "internet tough guy" mod?

Intriguing...

I have seen this on other forums as well btw, Casinomesiter I believe.

Yes, although the mods on that forum all seem to have an exceptionally high rep-altering power. I don't know if they actually earned it, and that is one reason they are a mod, or if they are given special powers as a mod. Either way, I don't see any reason why we would have to copy every single detail of their system, so yes, we could have mods being equal to others with rep-altering abilities - at least until they earn more power.

You don't sound at all like someone with an ax to grind.

i've been on forums with these, and i find it ******ed.

people are constantly saying REP ME! REP ME! most people won't care about their rep points, and those who do are annoying as [censored].

why is it necessary?

The alternative should be to ban more often and for longer periods of time.

Most of the people begging for reps get negged.

It isn't necessary, and is far from perfect. It certainly is helpful in separating decent posters from bad though.

sure why not

I fear OOT will degenerate into a BBV4L if ****** threads remain unlocked, and bans are reduced. I hope I'm wrong. We'll see. I'm sad to see the * system go. I do believe it kept out a decent amount of ******s.

I am all for it if it means more bans and deleted posts.

kyleb,

I know vampires that are less bloodthirsty than you. Keep it up though, it's entertaining.

whatever changes go into OOT will be affected heavily by the software change if and when it happens, and our options in terms of more creative rating / modding / etc will certainly increase.

In particular vBulletin has a flexible reputation system. But that can be so contentious it probably is not worth the drama.

please remove 2,339,021 of my *'s, but leave the rest.

tia

yeah i have not thought too deeply about this, but i doubt anything involving reputations assessed by other users would carry that much weight.

'REP POINTS FOR DOLLARS' SCANDAL ROCKS OOT - FILM AT 11

NT,

"i doubt anything involving reputations assessed by other users would carry that much weight."

I feel pretty much exactly 100% the opposite.

What exactly do we do with the rep points? Cash them in for 2+2 stress balls? Will that count against my MGR?

I feel the opposite also, but probably in a different way than you, ElD. I think they would carry far too much weight and importance, opening the door for serious abuse, and the ensuing drama crap that follows would be a real handful for the mods.

That said, I really have no idea how those reputation systems work, so I may well just be talking out of my ass.

You mean, like, people who aren't reputable would appear to be, and vice versa? We can't have that. I won't know whether to like their posts or not.

diablo,

the reason i feel this way is that i don't want OOT to become some sort of rep-whoring suck zone like some forums that have this system. any truly democratic rating system would pretty much necessarily get corrupted by the fact that noobs rating each other would far outweigh the opinions of established, solid posters.

if you can give me a rating system where only certain people can issue a rating, then perhaps. i'm not saying that the opinions of OOT posters should have no weight in the matter, merely that the existing systems that i've seen don't really accomplish that anyway.

done.

Well on BB, you don't have any reputation altering power until you have at least 50 posts. You could have this number at like 200 or something here if you desire.

Other measures in place to reduce abuse are you can only hand out reputation 5 times per day, and you can only give a person reputation for a 2nd time after you have given out reputation to at least 40 others.

It generally takes quite a while to build up a solid amount of reputation altering power as well. I have been there a little over 3 months, have ~300 posts, and have 5 points of rep-altering power. I have just under 5000 reputation points. So basically if someone in my position were to give me reputation for a post, I would have 5005 rep points instead of 5000. You really need to establish yourself to have any reasonable effect on another poster's rep. Some of the mods have over 100000 points of rep-altering power.

scotty,

this sounds interesting. what adds to 'rep altering power' in this system? posts? because if this is the case it would obviously be a problem, ******s like Bob Ojeda Fan or El Diablo would have more input than someone like adsman, who is basically always right.

it also seems like mutually terrible posters would just build each other up all the time.