Suggestion: Eliminate Negative Reputation

I've said this before in other threads, but I would like to official put it out here.

I don't see why the ability to de-rep someone is necessary at all. Personally, I don't think I've ever used this and most of the uses I see don't seem very justified to me and generally make people upset. I have seen what appear to be these most commonly:

-de-rep someone for posting something you disagree with
-de-rep someone for being a newer member with positive reputation
-de-rep someone because you straight up don't like them

Even for people who are being trolls or idiots, I don't think we need negative rep to get across the message. Forum members either ignore them or tell them straight up that what they are doing is idiotic. Many of them know before they start anyways.

So what if someone with very high rep starts being an idiot? Rep is supposed to be an indicator of value and status. But in all seriousness, forum members don't just go from being intelligent reasonable people to being idiots and trolls. Everyone has a moment or two that is less than shining, but I can't think of anyone here who permanently imploded.

Honestly, I don't think this change would affect the distribution of reputation significantly. Idiots and trolls would remain at zero. New members could build up rep without people randomly de-repping them for being new. Forum mavens and content contributors would remain those with high rep scores.

And, of course, there is the benefit of removing the pointlessness of de-repping and forum members getting annoyed(I believe the push for getting to see who repped who did show that de-repping was bothering some members).

Being repped or de-repped is going to bother all members, weather they choose to admit or not.

Humanity, having evolved over the centuries a highly advanced and complex social structure, are inherently concerned with what others perceive of them.

Thus, the reason for both the desire for a rep log, and it's eventual inception.

People are always going to worry about their rep, and when people get neg'd, they usually go back to find out why they did, and most try not to get neg'd for it again.

It's a feedback mechanism, you see. Even if you say you don't care, getting neg'd is still going to affect you.

This idea has been brought up and discussed numerous times, and informally declined numerous times as well..

Basically, it's doubtful that your wish will come true :P

That's not always the case, however.
Some people enjoy getting negative repped. It's like a goal of theirs to become the biggest troll and nuisance.
Look at FreeNadia's rep. People HATED him for the longest time, I mean - he at least has -58 rep. (That's the last time I saw the number)
Now it's a fad to act with him and be cool with him.

The rep system doesn't work in that case. Though FreeNadia's posts have never really bothered me. His posts were so idiotic that my brain couldn't get the concept of it.

I don't really see a downside to White Lions proposal.

Personally, I would go even further and suggest a sweeping abolishment of rep, post count displays and titles at large. What should matter is whether a person makes good posts or not, end of story. I am well aware that this suggestion is ludicrously unrealistic, though.


Not if they're of the same olympian arrogance as me. It does not bother me in the least when someone's being cute and de-repping me for disagreeing with me. If I were concerned about rep, I'd have to constantly play to the majority opinion, and then I could just give up on posting right away.
Rep on an internet forum is so ephemeral it holds no value to me whatsoever, and "some" people will always use karma/rep systems to reward those they agree with and punish those they disagree with, regardless of the post's quality.

I basically agree that the rep system isn't a reliable way to judge people, only reading someone's posts is. People who write intelligently consistently will be worth reading, people who repeatedly post drivel will not.

The main point of this proposal is that it's more realistic than eliminating rep altogether, which has plenty of advocates, and that it hopefully cuts down on pointless forum drama, members getting upset over rep, and maybe negative attention seeking a little.

The entire reputation system is broken and dumb. People don't need to have a high rep to be recognized as a valuable member of the community. People worry about it to much, and it just causes problems.

Well it isn't that I see a downside, it's just the admins don't seem to like the idea, and neither do a lot of the members.

I proposed a "Thank you system" no reputation involved just the ability to thank a poster and it shows how many thanks they've received in profile...but that was turned down as well :P

I never intended reputation to be used as it is now. That doesn't mean I don't like it's current use, but it wasn't my original intent.

Originally I planned to use reputation as a way to give people permission to upload manga to the site and edit manga information. I assumed people with higher reputation could be trusted with those privileges. But obviously I never finished my plans and now it looks like that won't be happening.

I probably won't remove reputation just because I think it is a powerful system. The community is passionate about it (not always positively). And I don't think it's a bad thing when people get upset about losing reputation or feel happy when they receive one. I have come very close to removing reputation that goes below zero, meaning that no one can have negative reputation points. That is probably the closest I will come to removing it.

But I am open to hearing everyone's thoughts on the subject.

While I agree with what you're proposing, you still get people who get repped nevertheless for their pointless drivel and antagonistic posts. Lollollol12 is an example of a user who gets repped even though many of his past and present posts have racist connotations behind them, and he keeps typing in caps, and yet he still gets repped - rep in it of itself is a broken system without a doubt.

The reason behind this is similar to FreeNadia's recent "popularity" on the forums. It seems that nowadays, being random and slightly funny warrants applause from the FAKKU community.

I think that having negative reputation should be removed from the forums. In all, I don't believe that rep matters so much as the content of your posts/ contribution to FAKKU. However, being able to negative rep a person has its consequences in the form of forum drama or confusion.

Therein lies the problem, but I don't find it funny or amusing at all but rather annoying and attention grabbing. This says more about putting the foot down on trolling behavior than anything else, and Nikon agrees with me in his new sticky thread in Random.

Either way, I'm not an proponent of eliminating negative rep, as I see it as something still necessary even if abused. Hell, the entire rep system is abused, as eliminating half the function isn't worth it really.

Rep shows what forum members value. If forum members choose to value the kind of posts Lollollol12 makes, then that is their choice and reflects on the forum users. I also tend to think Lollollol12 would be the kind of user who would be just as happy having a FreeNadia type rep score.

The system shows flaws but as long there's also a proper way to use it, I'd leave it be. As it has been said, checking your rep history (much easier recently due to the profile page upgrade) after loosing rep seems to be a common procedure and I'd expect any sensible person to try drawing conclusions (provided it was earned) after pinpointing the post.
As for random or grudge-originating de-reps ... it's just something we have to bear with (few people out there who can truly distance themselves from it no matter what they say). Anything can get misused in the wrong hands but many users also tend to cancel out the blatantly stupid de-reps when they see them and extreme, long-term attacks can simply be reported (and possibly evened-out with the source being put in it's place) so it's not all that unbearable.

I could care less about rep now because the edit manga information isn't working. Though I do like Jacobs idea where you can't go below zero it can really bring new users down. Though the I’m fine with both + and – rep existing. I have always thought it was a clever little addition to the community.

I think not being able to go below 0 rep is a great idea. That way, we wouldn't have to worry about new members who get derepped for asinine reasons running away.

As for getting rid of the ability to derep someone, though this subject is all but closed, I'd like to point this out - when older members get derepped, it's pretty much pointless. Often, friends or fans of the person give him/her a +rep and effectively eliminate the negative rep, regardless of whether the derep was deserved or not.

If he intends to leave this rep system in tact, I see no reason to change it at all. If someone is below 0 rep it is a sign to everyone that they're not reputable people..

Now with fakku atm this may not mean much, but I've seen cases where systems like this have been highly useful, such as isohunt, it lets you know if the person is known for providing fake torrents, virii, etc.

The same kind of thing could be applied to fakku, I've never seen a respectable member of fakku int he negative am I wrong?

I haven't seen a lot of people, period, below zero, but most of the ones I have seen were either well below zero (-5 or below) or were just -1. The former, after a while, are going to be recognized by just about everyone on the site as a troll or asshole. The latter are often new members who have done something stupid but not a big problem, like posting a request in the wrong section. And while I think that stuff (posting stuff in the wrong section) should not be acceptable, I also think that new members should be given a little bit of leniency. When you're new to a site, chances are, you're going to make a mistake. Also, first impressions rarely show what the person is truly like. I have seen a lot of new members go into the negatives in their first couple of weeks and then bounce back and gain a lot of positive rep.