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RE: Forum Rating/Reputation System
When I first joined KittycatS last fall, I posted in what turned out to be a contentious thread on marketing that has since been deleted. I took a firm position in that thread and within 24 hours was given one plus rating and then one negative rating to erase that one. When I saw that happen, I shrugged and thought, 'so much for rating on this board'. I have never used the rating system. I have made use of the little 'thanks' roses on posts.
One way of thinking about this issue is to focus on what the purpose of the ratings are, and are they functioning properly for that purpose. People who hang out on the board every day get to know the personalities of other posters through their writings. It seems to me that the function of the reputation rating is *trying* to provide a shorthand way of alerting new people and less frequent posters as to whether a particular person writes reliable helpful posts (or not). Certainly one's assessment of the 'helpfulness' of a post can vary.
As I said above, I don't use the system, which is ripe for gaming. That said, I'd agree that not very many people seem to abuse it, just a few. On the other hand, there are a number of regular posters on this board, Tad being a prime example - since his name has already been tossed out here - who deserve all the positive reputation that they have accrued and even more. If the system exists to alert new and casual users as to who are the 'authority' figures and community keystones, well it kind of does that, albeit roughly, and I'd say that certain people ought to be rated even higher. Tad for his Build-a-Cat alone should have a very very high rep.
The Pawsable Traits Reference manager and a Chart keeper.
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