What should we do about Rep ?

[Redrobes]

yes indeed!
Well, I just checked for J.Edward, it doesn't spill over.

10x1000 + 10x5000 => 60,000 is the max it will go to now. 20 bars total. But I suppose somebody with 55000 or 55001 rep will max the bars because of the rounding.

I think the key to solving all of these rep issues is to assume the max is about 50,000 and scale the parameters for whatever you think deserves rep to that range.

Yup, now it says
"Note: The maximum size of your custom image is 160 by 120 pixels or 400.0 KB (whichever is smaller)."
Thank you!

No problem - your avatar looks well nice when large.

[Voolf]

Hi Everyone,

I need your help - or at least your opinion, and I would hope that a lot of people would use the poll on this thread to let us know how you feel about the Rep system on this site.

The Rep is for reputation and shows up as the green bar and your little tag when you hover the mouse cursor over it showing how well your doing. It was added a long time ago - when I was a normal member like most people on the site. I recall the time it started and we could all dish out just our 1 rep boost to someones score for a map we liked.

The forum implements an increase to the amount that you give out based on your rep score. So if you have 1000 rep then you might give out 10 points each time. Also, for every year you have been on the site you have another point on to that score.

We have a bit of a problem which was first acknowledged many years ago when people had boosts of +13 or +20. Time has gone by and now we have some members who have multi 10,000 rep scores where they dish out > 100 pts per hit. Our highest member is about 800 at a time. For even those members they have said that they have reigned in and not given out so many hits of rep because each time they do it then it boosts that members rep score by too much in one go. I think we have the situation where one hit will take somebody up several levels at once.

We have noticed that in recent times we have members with rep scores approaching 10,000 where they have made only a few posts. No doubt they have produced some amazing maps and art in their first few months on the forum.

So we have rampant rep inflation going on now.

So I thought that it would be a good idea to gauge just how people felt about the rep system by running a couple of polls.

The first one is just to see what the sentiment is like out there for rep and how you feel about it. Then I might do another one regarding what to do about it given the limitations of the forum.

So please vote on the poll and I would like for both the established members and also the newer members to make their voices heard. Do comment on this thread and express in words how you find it working for you and whether its important or whether you feel alienated by the amounts of rep being dished out or your ability to express how much you like other peoples work using the rep system.

I voted for "The rep system in its current form needs a complete overhaul to make it work.", but it's not like i hate it or anything. I am not bothered by rep system, but I also don't find it very useful. I like the idea behind it, that you can "reward" a member extra for a great map, but if people are refreining from giving rep because of high numbers or any other reasons, this whole thing starting to loose sense. Why this have to be so complicated. instead of some raising numbers based on rep given and rep recived, every rep can be worth 1 all the time. No matter who gives it and when.


Anyway, for me the rep system can be gone completaly. There are more pressing matters than this and it's quite outdated forum. I would love to have move advaned forum here, where you get notifications on every topic you have discussed without the need of subscription. The ability to tag people @ so that when somebody is marked at a theard that never posted, can be inforemd about it and respond.

A implemented tag system could makes miracles in organizing and seaching threads, not only for everyday search but even for selecting maps for annual awards etc.

As for the reputation, for me it always stood for how much a member of the forum is helpful to the others. This is usually what new members think. We have had new members asking what is rep for on this site over and over including me long time ago. Instead of rep i would like to see maybe a reaction to post option when you can choose an icon like Thank you / Like it / Wow etc.

Lastly as much as i like the thematic guild skin and I appreciate making it. I would also appreciate some new/other light skins which i like more. Doesn't have to match the theme of the guild.

[Redrobes]

Thanks Voolf for all of those comments. Personally I am with you with the option of complete overhaul. Maybe to start with it worked but I havent felt like it has been working for a long while. Perhaps some tweaks would make it better but there is a limit to what can be done but at present its not working for me.

Just also to say that under your profile settings there is a skin option. There are only a couple of skins to pick from and the default is this brown one but there is an option to pick one which is white and light blue. So you may find that preferable. Perhaps we could think about some more skins and see whats involved in making a new one and then we might be able to run a competition to make up some more and the best of them could be implemented as options in your settings.

[Voolf]

Just also to say that under your profile settings there is a skin option. There are only a couple of skins to pick from and the default is this brown one but there is an option to pick one which is white and light blue. So you may find that preferable. Perhaps we could think about some more skins and see whats involved in making a new one and then we might be able to run a competition to make up some more and the best of them could be implemented as options in your settings.

Hey, yes i know about that skin, unfortunately it's kinda poor ;(, probably because it was designed for mobile.
Anyway skin it on the very bottom on my list. More important stuff are tagging people in post, make tags for threads, make notification for users etc. This probably wont work without new forum or new version of vbulletin....

[Eowyn Cwper]

I went through the skins' list on my first day here, thinking I could find something more modern than the brown theme, but I quickly got back to it – I actually don't mind it that much anymore. Modernizing the forum sounds like an enormous workload but I would totally be down to see that happen!

[Mark Oliva]

At the end of the day the trophy cabinet of silver and gold compasses, and especially our highest achievement of the Annual Awards and other similar shiny things under the members icon is the best indicator of reputation but I like the idea of rep as a means for members to doff the cap to another map. The "why" you leave rep is left entirely up to those giving it. Whilst maybe specific advice or participation is deserved, normally it is given for good artwork. We have a special shiny award in the trophy cabinet for outstanding participation such as running events or organizing things above and beyond the expected level of engagement..

If rep were to focus completely or almost completely upon maps, I would move into the ignore category. Looking at other people's maps is quite interesting; I do it regularly. But what's important to me about this guild is the exchange of ideas and advice, not the individual maps. I have repped a few maps, but almost all of the rep that I've been given has been for ideas, useful information and advice.

Servus,

[Tiana]

Instead of rep i would like to see maybe a reaction to post option when you can choose an icon like Thank you / Like it / Wow etc.

Yes, some forums I am on have a plug in that lets you click 'thanks' on a post and then it shows a list of who said 'thank you' for that post. I like that the rep here lets you write a message though, but it would be interesting to see who said thanks for what post, so we can see what was considered useful advice? Since I get more rep for me writing useful things about the business of mapping than I do for my art, like Mark Oliva posted as well.

Thanks Voolf for all of those comments. Personally I am with you with the option of complete overhaul. Maybe to start with it worked but I havent felt like it has been working for a long while. Perhaps some tweaks would make it better but there is a limit to what can be done but at present its not working for me.

Just also to say that under your profile settings there is a skin option. There are only a couple of skins to pick from and the default is this brown one but there is an option to pick one which is white and light blue. So you may find that preferable. Perhaps we could think about some more skins and see whats involved in making a new one and then we might be able to run a competition to make up some more and the best of them could be implemented as options in your settings.

Here's a couple of light color skins (we'd just want to replace with an appropriate banner)
I like the brown skin. I like that it's old fashioned, just like our maps. It's straight outta 2006.

https://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=325434
https://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=233455

That said, I know how to make basic phpbb forum skins too. I assume it's basically the same kind of CSS reskin with vbulletin.

I think it would be neat if we did a competition for some new banners and made them rotate through different banners.

If we update, just please, please, don't take that damn forum base that Nanowrimo switched to. They switched to Discourse. I'd rather eat a raw onion like an apple than use that mangled wannabe social media platform. If I wanted to be on Reddit or Instagram or Twitter I'd be on there. It killed my willingness to participate on that forum ever again. The latest version of VB? Phpbb? No prob! Should we? .......maybe. There's great plugins that are not usable by us because we're on VB4, and people are making for VB5. I'm pretty sure we can still port over all the posts and etc. I'd just be terrified of messing up the attachment system, a vital portion of this forum would be destroyed if old attachments were accidentally unlinked.

[Kellerica]

Well, damn, now I'll have to make a fancy new avatar! The old one was tailored specifically for the small size... This should be fun!

Also for the forum skins, please please don't take the brown Guild look away from me! I love it!

[ChickPea]

The latest version of VB? Phpbb? No prob! Should we? .......maybe. There's great plugins that are not usable by us because we're on VB4, and people are making for VB5. I'm pretty sure we can still port over all the posts and etc. I'd just be terrified of messing up the attachment system, a vital portion of this forum would be destroyed if old attachments were accidentally unlinked.

IIRC, Robbie purchased the VB5 upgrade a while back, but the problem was (at that time) it didn't support the awards system that we have (i.e. the compasses for challenge winners/Atlas Awards winners etc.). He posted about it here. Since then, I think Robbie's just got really busy with work and a growing family, and it's pretty much been put on the backburner.

Not gonna lie, I would *love* to get rid of the brown...

[Voolf]

IIRC, Robbie purchased the VB5 upgrade a while back, but the problem was (at that time) it didn't support the awards system that we have (i.e. the compasses for challenge winners/Atlas Awards winners etc.). He posted about it here. Since then, I think Robbie's just got really busy with work and a growing family, and it's pretty much been put on the backburner.

Not gonna lie, I would *love* to get rid of the brown...

Well, there seems to be an award system for new VB, but I have no idea if that is easy to implement or not for Robbie.

please please don't take the brown Guild look away from me! I love it!

Nobody wants to take it away, i simply said i would like to have an additional one