[lurchlarson]

I was thinking that a thumbs up/ thumbs down vote button be available for people to vote on if they like what the person said. You might be able to tie that into a "reputation" title that that each of the users has. That way we can punish people that tend to be trolls and reward people that make useful, insightful comments.

Maybe not a bad idea in principal but I can see it starting some major arguments.

[jct us101]

I would have a lot of thumbs down.

[MrApollinax]

You could just do away with the thumbs down portion and only have a positive rep system. I've seen a lot of other boards do this. Limit the amount of positive rep each user can dish out per thread and per day, per individual (i.e. once per thread, 10 +reps total per day, 3 +reps to a single user per week ). The more positive rep you have you would then gain some sort of ranking to go with your site moniker, say green dots for example.

So for a user that contributes good posts and insight they will be easily noted in a thread as ones with many green dots. say 50 +reps per dot and as you approach a limit change the dot color to recognize more +rep.

Long time posters will eventually get lots of rep and new posters who contribute something of merit will also get rep. Those who do not add will obviously not aquire rep as quickly. Going with this you could also use rep as a qualifier for marketplace access. +150 rep or something like that. The system could help new users quickly note who is, and who isn't helpful like an online rating system.

The downside of course is that the moderators would have to keep an eye out for falsely inflated rep but I think this community is pretty straight forward enough that issue like that are on the low side of things.

[Adam]

I've disabled the rep system because I believe it's a mere redundancy. A user's post count really says it all; if he is a troll, then he will be banned. I know that some boards use a 'thank-you' system for threads, however. While this is something that I've considered more closely, I think it would complicate things more than it would benefit others.

[MrApollinax]

Looking at the OP, I think I was talking about a different system. The OP was talking about a per-post rep system. Like Fatwallet's "green" and "red" voting per post to show how useful a post is. By default neutral but as more and more people vote the more "green" or "red" the post becomes. I mistakenly thought the OP was talking about a global "rep" system.

[Adam]

The default vBulletin reputation system works on a per-post basis, but you can't get it to show the actual ratings each post has gotten without some extensive modification to core forum files, which I don't want to do at the moment.

Adam
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[jct us101]

I've never used reps myself either. I think that they don't add anything and only serve as to either inflate egos or insult people who aren't liked (RiceHigh) on the forum.

[seacapt]

I was thinking that a thumbs up/ thumbs down vote button be available for people to vote on if they like what the person said. You might be able to tie that into a "reputation" title that that each of the users has. That way we can punish people that tend to be trolls and reward people that make useful, insightful comments.

I give this idea a thumbs down!!! It would inhibit members from speaking their mind.

There are a few members on here I would like to tell to do something with their thumbs... but 'up or down' is not the the words that would necessarily apply. More 'in or out'. Actually... 'up or down' works too.

But, I think we have enough implied and actual 'popularity' voting going on here anyway... So I am with the seacapt but maybe not for the exact reasons...

[8540tomg]

I agree with Gary that in principal the idea has some merit. Implementation could raise some issues however. Things could degenerate rather quickly if someone found themselves “thumbed” in a manner they didn’t appreciate. One of the good things about this forum is the group seems to self-regulate (with the help of the monitors) rather well. I suspect most of us, myself included, already seek out advice and read posts from those members whose opinions we have come to respect.

Tom G

[Adam]

I agree with Tom. An explicit per-post rating system would likely be harder to maintain because of complaints I'm sure people would start sending, and it would thus do more harm than good.

I forgot to mention this earlier, but...we have a thread rating system so that you can rate a thread on a 1-5 scale. Low ratings of 1 or 2 are frequently found in the rumors forum- and thus you know if a thread is bogus or not.

[philbaum]

My thumbs down on a thumbs up or down system :-)

I think it might introduce the "fan club" mentaility where the majority inhibit new ideas and new members. Too much like High School and not useful for adults. Adam already has the necessary tools for dealing with trolls.

My thumbs down on a thumbs up or down system :-)

I think it might introduce the "fan club" mentaility where the majority inhibit new ideas and new members. Too much like High School and not useful for adults. Adam already has the necessary tools for dealing with trolls.

Are you calling us moderators tools?

Don't answer that, you might get an infraction.

[Fl_Gulfer]

The more junk you add to a post the longer the page takes to open... Most of us don't have access to a fast connection living in the boonies.