What should we do about Rep ?

[Redrobes]

There are no plans to change to another forum type and ChickPea is right in that we have some issues upgrading the version of this one. Whilst there are lots of small issues with it, in general its been working pretty well and I don't think we need to change that. In any case we would need Robbies input a lot to make any kind of significant change to the site and he has been busy for some time. As for skins, we could add a few more but thats a bit on the back burner for now.

[Tiana]

I'm pretty sure skins that don't require custom images but just a color reskin don't need administrative FTP access, but can be done in the admin CP?

That said, I still like the brown just fine, though I understand that many people might also like to have black text on white or light.

[Redrobes]

I'll look into skins after we fix up the rep issues. If I can work out exactly how to modify it and all of the images then we might have a little compo to design some new ones such as terrain skin or futurist skin etc.

[Voolf]

I'll look into skins after we fix up the rep issues. If I can work out exactly how to modify it and all of the images then we might have a little compo to design some new ones such as terrain skin or futurist skin etc.

Not sure how do you want to redesign it, but for me as i said before whoever and whenever should have ability to rep post once with a power of 1 all the time.
That being said, people who do care about the rep and ranks (but have it low now) may never catch up with those who already have big number. May be unfair to them...
On the other hand, if you reset the rep for everyone and start again, people who have worked hard for heir rep and will loose it now can get angry....
Tought desicion.

[Yrda]

Do you have an overview of the current rep ranges of old and active members that still look "reasonable"?

What are the current rep level ranges? (e.g. level 0 = 0, level 1 = 100 - 500, level 2 = 501 - 2000 ...)
If there is a level cap set not too high/low, maybe it isn't a problem that newer members will never be able to catch up with the numbers, but they could catch up with the level itself (with level I mean the wording, like "has a rep beyond repute").

Maybe there could also be a way to earn rep points when actively participating in a challenge for those who didn't win it? (but as I understood this already happens "manually" because members here are nice and give rep to their competitors or entries they also liked )

[Redrobes]

Do you have an overview of the current rep ranges of old and active members that still look "reasonable"?

I was going to run through this on the what to do about it post but since you asked ill list them here now:

User is an unknown quantity at this point = 0
User is on a distinguished road = 10
User will become famous soon enough = 50
User has a spectacular aura about = 150
User is a jewel in the rough = 250
User is just really nice = 350
User is a glorious beacon of light = 450
User is a name known to all = 550
User is a splendid one to behold = 650
User has much to be proud of = 1000
User has a brilliant future = 1500
User has a reputation beyond repute = 2000

And you can see that with the old system the full rep bar being 1500 the expectation of the developer of the reputation system was that you went up to about 1500 - 2000 and you were done. Now the full bar is set to 55000 - 60000 and these bands need to be re-calibrated to reflect the stages of progress to that amount.

We need to set a cap and we need to re-calibrate the amount of power that a user increases the amounts when they get hit with rep. That is a question for a poll. We could have everyone do +10 or +50 or we could scale it based on some parameters. But the key is that the most somebody should be able to rep needs to be capped at some value and the new members need to start with a value that is a lot higher than 1 so that scores of 60000 doesn't seem out of reach. The exact values we can discuss.

We have the ability to edit the names of them and the amounts and we can add new levels. So I think it would make sense to have 20 of them at one per bar so in increments of about 1000 each for first ten and 4000 each for second ten. Clearly some people will have already maxed out their rep bar but to rescale the actual amount of rep people have got would mean hitting the back end database and there is much scope to have the system end up in a weird state. So I would rather avoid changing peoples values. But I think that lower level people need to be able to rep more than 1 point and the higher level people need to rep by a LOT less than 800 at a time. Maybe it starts at 10 and goes up to 50 or starts at 20 and goes up to 100 or maybe everyone just gets 10 or 50 or something.

Top all time poster is Ravells at about 11,000. Longest member here is obviously Robbie at about 2006. Highest Rep member is J.Edwards at about 85,000 or so. I think that the top 50 longest serving members should have max rep power, the top 50 posters should also and the top rep people too. So *if* we agreed that the rep should be between +20 and a cap of +100 for example then the scale needs to reflect the amount of bonus rep to about +20 and then +1 per 60 days on the forum, or +1 per 1000 rep, or +1 per 100 posts or thereabouts. Those kinds of values would even it out much more than +1 for this +1 for that and +275 for the current rep value like we have at present. J.Edward can hit a new member with one rep hit and they jump 8 levels out of 10. Its madness where we are at the mo.

[Azélor]

I'm all in favour of changing how rep is awarded, retroactively if possible.
Right now, the system is a useful as a Venezuelian Bolivar. It doesn't tell anything about how great or helpful someone is.

I would either go with a +1 for every time you rep,
Or using a logarithmic scale, as someone already mentioned. So long term members with a lot of rep still have a bit more power.

[J.Edward]

I don't feel any need to have any more rep power than anyone else.

edit - i must have missed something.. big avatars

[Tiana]

I don't feel any need to have any more rep power than anyone else.

edit - i must have missed something.. big avatars

I asked, I received.

Suggestions

User is an unknown quantity at this point = 0
User is on a distinguished road = 10
User will become famous soon enough = 50
User has a spectacular aura about = 150
User is a jewel in the rough = 250
User is just really nice = 350
User is a glorious beacon of light = 450
User is a name known to all = 550
User is a splendid one to behold = 650
User has much to be proud of = 1000
User has a brilliant future = 1500
User has a reputation beyond repute = 2000
User is a magnificent human being = 3000
User took the ring to Mordor, though they did not know the way = 4000
User is a wise example to us all = 5000
The Force is strong with this user = 6000
User won the Game of Thrones = 7000
User has brought honor to us all = 8000
User has earned the respect and honor of the guild = 9000
User inspires the nations to artistic horizons = 10000
User discovered a new island= 11000
User mapped an entire new continent = 12000
User did not change after the Fire Nation attacked = 13000
User defeated a bear in single hand to hand combat = 14000
User saved Earth from an alien invasion = 15000
User has inspired the generations to come = 16000
User is a paragon of artistic prowess = 17000
User has contributed more than we could ask or imagine = 18000
User is an invaluable member of the guild with timeless repute = 19000
User has redefined contemporary cartography as we know it = 20000

[ChickPea]

Haha, I love this scale, Tiana! I'm currently saving the Earth from alien invasion, having just wrestled a bear, and frankly I feel no need to go higher!

I don't know how many options you're allowed (it may be less than what you've listed), but I think this is fab.