Reputation System Reset Pending...Dec 07

[tellner]

Mr. Hubbard, Mr. McMullen, members of the Moderators and the MT Community: thirteen days from now, December 7th, 2007 - a date which will live in infamy - the Martial Talk Rep System was suddenly and deliberately attacked by administrative and technical forces of the MT Steering Committee.

 

[mrhnau]

Mr. Hubbard, Mr. McMullen, members of the Moderators and the MT Community: thirteen days from now, December 7th, 2007 - a date which will live in infamy - the Martial Talk Rep System was suddenly and deliberately attacked by administrative and technical forces of the MT Steering Committee.

That could be considered a form of terrorism! Ack!

 

[kidswarrior]

...those of us who acquired a fair amount of rep in shortish order (and I count myself in that number) did so by making considered and structured posts that laid out our opinions to those who'd not heard them before.

Take that rep away and I, for one, will never gain it back for I shall not make those insightful (in others eyes) posts again.

That saddens me

OK, I have to make a 'Me too' post here. The posting many of us did when we first got here is just not replicable. Life is not a conveyor belt where one can just return to a certain point and push the 'redo' button.

Now that's fine with me personally. I'm just a small fish in a big pond, too old to worry about what someone else might think of me, and too busy anymore to post as much as I used to. But for the sake of others, let me just say that to believe it will all 'even out' for the current high reppers is wishful thinking, I'm afraid.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

The problem is, there's no "fair" way to do this. Regardless of what I do, someone(s) is going to get the short end.

If I do nothing, the system becomes even more of a joke, as less and less use it and newer members feel left out.

If I reset the scoring, but leave the reps unchanged, it'll be decades before anyone gets near the current Gawds_of_Rep...again, creating an elitist feeling.

If I try to devise some means of pro-rating existing, it still leaves gaps and some will feel slighted.

The only way I see to be as fair as possible is to reset everyone, including myself, to 10 points, and let things build from there again.

That said, there will be some means of recognizing who was where before the reset. Currently, there are 107 (out of 3100) members who have at least 1 star. On Dec 1st I'll recheck that list and those people will get a special recognition on their profiles. In addition, the ranking will be archived, by point count for all active members with a positive point count on Dec 1st. Those with negative counts or disabled reps will not be archived.

One of the other minor tweaks will be that your base rep influence will be public as well once I finish the revamp. A few of the tweaks will be phased in next week, probably mid-week as I adjust all the settings.

The reset date is Dec 1st, not 7th btw. I meant that 07 as in 2007.

I'll be leaving the comments intact (if I can) just resetting their point counts to zero.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

One minor update - I added the bits in to show rep power.... I'll be hopefully redoing the post layout next month as that headers getting to be a bit....heavy.

 

[theletch1]

The problem is, there's no "fair" way to do this. Regardless of what I do, someone(s) is going to get the short end.

If I do nothing, the system becomes even more of a joke, as less and less use it and newer members feel left out.

If I reset the scoring, but leave the reps unchanged, it'll be decades before anyone gets near the current Gawds_of_Rep...again, creating an elitist feeling.

If I try to devise some means of pro-rating existing, it still leaves gaps and some will feel slighted.

The only way I see to be as fair as possible is to reset everyone, including myself, to 10 points, and let things build from there again.

That said, there will be some means of recognizing who was where before the reset. Currently, there are 107 (out of 3100) members who have at least 1 star. On Dec 1st I'll recheck that list and those people will get a special recognition on their profiles. In addition, the ranking will be archived, by point count for all active members with a positive point count on Dec 1st. Those with negative counts or disabled reps will not be archived.

One of the other minor tweaks will be that your base rep influence will be public as well once I finish the revamp. A few of the tweaks will be phased in next week, probably mid-week as I adjust all the settings.

The reset date is Dec 1st, not 7th btw. I meant that 07 as in 2007.

I'll be leaving the comments intact (if I can) just resetting their point counts to zero.

That bit I bolded should appease some of the folks that are worried that all their time and mental effort has been for naught. They'll still get the recognition for what they have now in their profile just not at the top of every post the type in. If you're really, really worried about folks knowing what your rep is as of now then post a link to your profile in your sig line as an epitaph to the old system.
EDIT: Bob, not being a post whore like Terry I just edited this post. Didn't we used to have the posters primary art listed in the same area that the rep power is now?

 

[grydth]

Like I said earlier, that kind of philosophy is alright in theory until you realise that those of us who acquired a fair amount of rep in shortish order (and I count myself in that number) did so by making considered and structured posts that laid out our opinions to those who'd not heard them before.

Take that rep away and I, for one, will never gain it back for I shall not make those insightful (in others eyes) posts again. So, in the sight of new members joining up, I shall be a chap with a thousand odd posts who never said anything worthwhile - so how did he ever get to be a Mentor?

That saddens me - there's a Shao-Lin Temple insult in there somewhere I'm sure.

You give yourself far too little credit, as do a number of people on this thread. There are always new topics being raised and new members to read them.

Even if you eliminated the rep system entirely, I believe most would stay and all would produce posts of the same quality. People come here to trade knowledge, debate and make friends.

Watch and see, this will be just like the Y2K thing, lots of apprehension but only a very small bum in the road. You have earned respect by thoughtful commentary, not by yellow pips on a screen.

 

[Sukerkin]

I just wanted to say that all of the comments made above by various members have validity and I am conscious of the fact that, as Bob says, he's in a no-win situation whatever way he tries to instigate a balanced rep system.

I have had chance to think on this for a little while now (not being at work for the week-end :huzzar:!) and those who have been making the point that 'rep' is merely an outward sign of what others have thought of you in the past are quite correct when you further say that, for established members, the poster is recognised for their input by their peers regardless of what the rep score sits at.

I am humanly flawed enough to be proud of the rep I have earned from a wide swathe of my compatriots here and I think part of my 'resistance' has been that I didn't want that 'badge of honour' to go away so that I have to re-prove my worth to newcomers all over again.

Pondering on that has made me aware that such 'laurel sitting' is hardly the right attitude for a Mentor to hold. After all, part of my 'job' is to be proactive in helping new members work out what is and what is not acceptable behaviour here and in that role my words should stand or fall on their own merits, not inhereted 'status' from things I've said in the past.

Them stars sure are shiny tho' ...

 

[CoryKS]

On Dec 1st I'll recheck that list and those people will get a special recognition on their profiles.

He's making a list, and checking it twice... :rofl:

 

[terryl965]

He's making a list, and checking it twice... :rofl:

Gonna find out who's naughty or nice

 

[terryl965]

Gonna find out who's naughty or nice

Santa hubbard is killing us al

PS just so everyone knows I'm only kidding :rofl:

 

[Brother John]

The other thing is, an occational reset of the system is good, and recommended.
It rebalances the field, and in truth, the cream will continue to rise back to the top.

I think it's a GOOD idea!
The people who're concerned about the "Reps" will work hard to get back to that point again anyway.

Is there going to be any similar revamp of the system on KT?

Your Brother
John

 

[Brother John]

The people who have UMPTEEN stars....and it matters too them, will have to strive to work at building them up again. BUT Those people who tended to give them rep points, will continue to do so....because they'll probably still appreciate their opinions and insights.

The people who have only a few green dashes will be level with the people who were the "Rep-Gawds" from before and may feel very motivated to work very hard to achieve that level as well.

The People who've been on Santa's naughty list will be 'advanced' up to ZERO...and wipe off those several red-dashes they've been slapped with. They may feel motivated to keep from gaining those negative rep points again and try to actually move toward the positive.

Rep points (the green & the red) meant more to me when I didn't already have a full page of them!

I think that the 'medal of MT honor', or whatever it will be in our profile, will be just fine to represent the level of contribution we've been able to make thus far.

Your Brother
John

 

[terryl965]

The people who have UMPTEEN stars....and it matters too them, will have to strive to work at building them up again. BUT Those people who tended to give them rep points, will continue to do so....because they'll probably still appreciate their opinions and insights.

The people who have only a few green dashes will be level with the people who were the "Rep-Gawds" from before and may feel very motivated to work very hard to achieve that level as well.

The People who've been on Santa's naughty list will be 'advanced' up to ZERO...and wipe off those several red-dashes they've been slapped with. They may feel motivated to keep from gaining those negative rep points again and try to actually move toward the positive.

Rep points (the green & the red) meant more to me when I didn't already have a full page of them!

I think that the 'medal of MT honor', or whatever it will be in our profile, will be just fine to represent the level of contribution we've been able to make thus far.

Your Brother
John

Excellent post cudos for the wise words.

 

[jks9199]

The problem is, there's no "fair" way to do this. Regardless of what I do, someone(s) is going to get the short end.

If I do nothing, the system becomes even more of a joke, as less and less use it and newer members feel left out.

If I reset the scoring, but leave the reps unchanged, it'll be decades before anyone gets near the current Gawds_of_Rep...again, creating an elitist feeling.

If I try to devise some means of pro-rating existing, it still leaves gaps and some will feel slighted.

The only way I see to be as fair as possible is to reset everyone, including myself, to 10 points, and let things build from there again.

I think you've done about the best you can, and been as fair as you can. I admit, I enjoy getting good rep, and especially value the comments that typically accompany it on this forum. It's nice to know when others agree, or recognize something about a post.

But I'm not so wedded to my small constellation of stars to get upset over it. I figure if I post the same way, I'll maintain the real reputation I have whether or not I have an array of stars.

 

[Bigshadow]

I figure if I post the same way, I'll maintain the real reputation I have whether or not I have an array of stars.

That is why I say everyone's name is their reputation.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Didn't we used to have the posters primary art listed in the same area that the rep power is now?

We did, but took it out as some would put "kenpo" and others would put "I train at john smiths super kenpo school in tallywacker maine and he's a great guy cuz he bought me a bear" which scrolls on way too long, lol.

Is there going to be any similar revamp of the system on KT?

When I put it in at KT, I "fixed" most of the things that unbalanced the MT system. That said, I may revisit it there too, but it doesn't seem that many people are using it there.

I figure if I post the same way, I'll maintain the real reputation I have whether or not I have an array of stars.

True I think. I think that those who have it now will regain it as time passes.

The other thing is, power-people who stopped using it because it felt like overkill (like myself) might start using the system again.

 

[bydand]

tallywacker maine

Have you been reading my profile and cherry picked my town?







Oh... sorry, it's Washburn, Maine. Could/should be Tallywacker, ME though :lfao:.

 

[Lisa]

The other thing is, power-people who stopped using it because it felt like overkill (like myself) might start using the system again.

I really agree with this Bob. I rarely hand out rep now. I give a gold pip with every hit and can sink someone really low if they are new to the board.

I remember when I first started on this site, four years ago, that when I was repped by a "heavy hitter" it was around 25 points. I was like, wow...will I ever get to that?

The rep system is fun it is a nice way to show that you really like something someone said or give good solid advice to those you disagree with. Resetting it won't change that. Unfortunately some people take it more seriously then others, while some people like nothing more then to ***** about it and cry when they aren't getting the rep they think they deserve.

We shouldn't be comparing our self worth on the board by a bunch of cute little stars. I, for one, appreciate the friendly atmosphere and the friendships I forged over my years here. This is my home on the internet and just like my home in real life, I am not trying to keep up with the Jones'

 

[tellner]

...and I've tried to rep, but every time it's failed with an error message. Eventually I gave up trying.