Kleetus: ----8<----snip----
fables22: In all honesty...the rep function in itself is not an issue. It's the people who have continuously been abusing it that are the problem.
For me, the reputation rating system is simply decoration on the page. Game reviews, movie reviews, music reviews, restaurant reviews, and I dare say any rating or review system is inherently unreliable in matching my personal tastes, regardless of how authoritative the participants on the subject matter itself. Obviously that's because ratings and reviews by other people are other people's opinions and thoughts, not mine.
I myself have mentioned replacements for this system of rating members (indirectly by rating their posts) only because it seemed like many others also thought it wasn't worth the space on the webpages, therefore maybe there could be something else that I wouldn't ignore. (For example, listings of posts by members so individuals can decide for themselves by reading a member's posts rather than an arbitrary score.)
As for abuse, my perspective as a member is that the reputation system is not being abused at all by anybody. Well, maybe the unrelated "spam report" button that's integrated within it, but not the reputation system itself. From the
support link on the original post of this thread there is a menu on the leftside of its page with further explanation of forum guidelines. Specifically there is the link for
What is this “rep” thing on the forums? which describes the reputation system and states:
Getting one or two stars is fairly easy, while five stars is a serious achievement. Those who earn maximum reputation can expect some kind of nice bonus (surprise, surprise! :).There is a number of ways you can earn and improve your rep...
Earning points or stars to show others "how respected and well-known you are in the community" clearly makes the reputation system competitive. There's the implication of being better than someone else, or less than someone else. Of being deserving of a bonus. Of not being deserving of anything. In particular, it discourages being yourself and encourages role-playing in order to succeed within the system.
It seems to me the reputation system shares many of the same characteristics as games, and is simply being played like a game by its participants, even if unknowingly. It seems like some members go for high scores, some go for low scores, and sometimes some members form ad hoc teams to help or hinder other members or teams of members. Participation isn't mandatory so much as it is simply happenstance by being present, that is, whenever posting. It doesn't happen by only reading or viewing the webpages.
There's no abuse of the reputation system, it's obviously just gaming. It seems like it happens with reviews of products, people, and everything in all rating systems, and I would think people in a gaming forum would be least likely to not realize the same.
OTOH, there may be misuse of the reputation system. As I have admitted, I was using the buttons for "always hide"/"always show". Or for hiding long posts, which has the side-effect of causing the length of the page to retract thereby simulating scrolling upward without having to scroll. IOW, I was using the buttons and their visual effect functionally. (I think I may have thought of the words "rate this post" as being a separate item, not a description of the buttons. Perhaps because to me ratings are usually 1–5 stars, not minus/plus.) I am trying to not do that anymore, to not use the minus/plus buttons in a functional manner.
Anyway, it doesn't matter to me. The score is just a decoration on the webpage, like advertisements or other nonfunctional noise. I use Safari with a personalized CSS (cascading style sheet) file to hide whatever detritus on various webpages, and sometimes reshape the content for more comfortable perusal for myself. I haven't hidden the reputation score in this forum as of yet as I still find its presence quite the novelty, considering it's a gaming forum.