- Thread Starter
- #61
Ella,You dont think its a good possibility that moderators get more rep points, possibly from users hoping to make a good impression? Or, the flipside, they dont get negatively repped as much, because a member doesn't want to risk the "wrath" of a mod?
You're basically saying that the moderators are abusing their power. Every check I've made recently says this isn't so. We've had few cases of that happening over the years, and when it's happened, it's been reversed and their rep abilities restricted or even removed.
One other important point - staff aren't allowed to turn their rep displays off. Supporting members can, but staff aren't allowed.
Whenever someone says "someones abusing the system" I review it. I look not only at what you got, but at what each person who recently repped you has done/received. Patterns of abuse are actually easy to spot when you know what you are looking at. I've often found that the person screaming abuse has been hurling it themselves but no one had yet complained. Or that someone's been sending love notes. In 1 old case, some rather inappropriate comments were being directed at several of our female members by a now former member. But, it's an unmoderated system. Unless someone says "please check my rep out I think theres a problem" we really don't sit here and read through it.
For kicks, I just did though, read through the 40 assorted comments made on the 15th. 22 People left 40 reps for 36 people. 6 Negative, 1 zero, 33 Positive. 4 had no notes, 31 were signed, 9 weren't. Only 2 could be construed as rude, but were minor and I don't feel like nitpicking. Based on past 1 day looks, it's a pretty typical snapshot.
Highest rep hit was 928, lowest was 20.
Now, were there vitally important nugget of wisdom in there that folks would die without? Nope. Most fell into the "good post/bad post" type....all the 'attaboy' fluff we don't want clogging up our "meat" posts, since some folks want all meat and can't stand that warm-human-contact stuff. Damn stuffy geeks, need to get out more and kiss a few girls in my opinion, but I digress.
Now, the system is broke, because it is un balanced. A newb comes in, can't kill a fly. Me, I move mountains. But, is it fair to penalize me since I've been here 8 years and have put in the time? Most of the folks with high rep here, have been here a hell of a long time, and are very active posters. Why should we handcuff them, or strip them of "rank" just to even the playing field?
I've seen people come in here, and in a short time, get those stars, because they contribute thought provoking commentary, follow the site rules and help others who are struggling with them, and go above and beyond to help others out.
On the other hand, I've seen absolute losers come in here, try to wave some rank around and let us know how real important they are and how much we all suck, get neg repped into the ground.
The system works the way it's meant to....it just doesn't have a "top level" so folks keep going up. Maybe all it needs is a cap at X on power.
On the other hand, yeah I have seen folks beg for rep, or offer it. I've seen folks offer it to people who sign up to support this site with a supporting membership or a gold-key membership. I don't participate in that, but can't fault them for adding a bit of a thank you to those folks who do help keep us running.
Bottom line - might need a few tweaks to correct some imbalances, report abuse and it will be looked into, abuse the system and you lose points and privileges.
Back to the voting.