I watched this a while to see where it ended up and ... good Lord, there's a lot of negging that needs to be done here (I don't neg).
I think Rep power has its merits. It keeps people honest and not to do stupid things for example. I used to say a lot of stupid things and some posters here have let me know by neg-repping me which have kept in in line ever since. It's just that you start to get people who have high Rep Power acting stupid that's the issue IMO.
Rep is not the issue, it's how we can fully utilize it.
Please name names. Who was neg-repping you and what makes you so sure it wasn't just because your posts were terrible?
Couple things. They do this as some valiant internet way of bravely fighting off potential alts like their mother's honor is at stake or something. They also can't have new perspective interfering with their circle jerk mental masterbation groupthink hole that they're ever trying to dumb this place down into. The ego doesn't get strokes of affirmation with new posters getting in the way with......GASP....fresh ideas.
Who's 'they?' I'm taking no personal offense, btw, but this thread seems to be much more valuable with specific examples of specific posters. Otherwise, it just sounds extremely whiny and, as bigb said, high school girlish.
I know the ownership and most of the moderating powers of this site are fairly conservative folks. I just can't understand why they don't see what rep is breeding here... and how it has encouraged some of the better posters to leave.
I'm basically shocked this experiment has run for this duration. It should go. It should have gone. Will it eventually go? I'd really like some explanation from Jason et al.
Once again, what exactly is rep breeding and what weak-minded ******* have been run off by others rep?
Gotta agree with NAOS here. And quite frankly, I'm not sure how they've allowed alts to go on and on and on for so long while others get infractions and/or banned for such.
So who are these alts they've allowed to go on and on?? (you guys seeing the trend in my questioning yet? I'll continue)
I don't see why a management of Rep power that I explained above can't be used to curb this issue. It seems such a no-brainer to me. Act stupid - reduce the Rep Power - reduce the amount of havoc you can do - change your behavior.
I think overall having Rep is a good thing. Here are some positives that I can think of at least anyway:
- Stops people starting stupid threads
- Stops people posting stupid things that don't necessarily lead to infractions
- Encourages people to keep coming back to the site (I think according to the formula floated around here a while back you get increased reps for the No. of Posts you make, how long you've been coming to the site, etc).
- Gives other posters some indication of where each posters are at (i.e., you can have posters with extremely high post count, but if most of the posts are rubbish you'll have a lower rep power).
All of the above are good from Moderator/Site owner perspective as it increased site traffic & decreased stupid posts/threads. I could probably think of more but don't have time ATM.
So overall I think Rep is a good thing, it's how you manage it that's the issue.
So people with high rep have some exclusive license to starting stupid threads? Nope. I think stupid threads are started by about every level of rep power.
I don't at all feel anyone is pointing a finger at me, btw, but I will say that I have ZERO open infractions. Slate is clean. I'd be curious to know of the last, say, 20 infractions, the average rep power of those receiving them.
I DO believe there is a real problem of too many posters immediately running off a new poster (assuming they're an alt) and this would be a true concern of mine if I was an owner of the site .. and I like seeing new posters, myself.
It's not this simple. There're rep whores like the STG group. Then, there's just trolls like HH and others. Some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money or rep power. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
This is a generally good post. There has certainly been some rep-whoring by some considered the STG group. Funny thing though is that the two most obvious culprits of this aren't from STG and have never met up for a game with the rest of us, but are generally considered part of this 'group.'
I have never once asked for rep, for the record.
*reached my limit on the multi-quoting ... going back in..*