I'm just wondering if any of you guys in the know might help me out with a couple of things, namely reputations and thread ratings. I have a forum but its only small, I've only just started really so I'm just wondering if it's a good idea to keep reputations and thread ratings enabled.
I mean, I can see the benefit in terms of their purpose and on a larger scale forum I'm sure they're invaluable. But for a place that isn't going to be say as big as myBB here, do you think there's any real point having them in place?
All thoughts are welcome and I appreciate your time!
Thanks,
Hazel
PS: Wasn't sure where to put this thread, I'm leaning more towards a discussion/input angle rather than support, hope that's ok!
I think they're helpful in some ways... Rarely showing if a user is high quality, or trustworthy, but really in my opinion, reputation alone causes too many problems. People fight over reputation, they wrongly rate people, it just becomes a problem and eventually it's pointless because no one actually uses the system how it should be used... This can be on a big or small forum.
Yeah that's what I was thinking too Alex. I reckon some people might just abuse the rating/reputation system and that's really why I'm asking if there are any of those forums out there that actually do see any benefit in using them. I'm sure there are those who do rate fairly and appropriately but on the whole I just foresee problems really!
Here on myBB I wonder if people really do follow thread ratings? If I'm looking for help here I search around, I never look at the thread rating at all, is that just me? I guess I just like to make up my own mind! If I do obtain help, I don't think about giving a mark to people either, a simple thank you should suffice? But, perhaps there are people who might feel insulted by this and want the mark of recognition? Who knows!
Thanks for your feedback, it pretty much tallies with my own viewpoint! Interested to hear others!
I see a lot of market based forums benefiting from reputation, but even then, there's always trouble because people lie about how someone is a trusted seller or something... So really, it's impossible not to have people abusing the reputation system, it's all a matter of how mature your members are and how well you manage your community. Reputation is always a good thing to have because it gives people an incentive to post high quality threads and things like that, but as I said before, it's also a terrible thing to have that can cause a lot of trouble if it isn't handled that well.
But yes, for thread ratings... I honestly don't look at them either, unless it's my own thread.
Yeah that's pretty interesting actually. Perhaps reputation should only be applicable to members who are actually part of a support group/team, in terms of say receiving the marks that is - then it would be quite beneficial really! That would also *hopefully* eliminate false marks from being awarded inappropriately, hmm, that's a nice angle actually, I like it!
Well, it's nice to know I'm not alone in the ratings game...I'm really thinking of removing that from my forum, though the stars are a nice sparkly addition
Quote:Perhaps reputation should only be applicable to members who are actually part of a support group/team ...
I feel that support team do not need a showing badge of reputation !!
Quote:... in terms of say receiving the marks that is - then it would be quite beneficial really!
if support team are paid for their contribution then only you need such mechanism
Well yes precisely ranjani - say I were paying a support team, then I'd like to see who may be outperforming and reward accordingly. It would be a nice gauge I guess but of course it is merely an idea that I like. Until then, I didn't really warm to the idea of including the reputation option.
Of course I agree with you that a support team should not be defined by reputation, but still it would be a nice compliment.
As much as they are a pain in the butt it does give users something to do. I guess it will depend on your long-term goals. Possibly get feedback from your members on this.
Cheers labrocca, I'll obtain feedback from them of course, yep, just wanted to put out some feelers here first!
Can you tell me what you don't like about it? Is there something specific or pretty much what we've been saying above?
Inevitably you get complaints about abuse in reps and ratings. I do suggest you disable negative ratings which in 1.6x this is a setting. It will help in the problem.