Today we had some back and forth about how to fix Rep. You may notice that the green and white numbers at the top of each of your posts are gone, but you can still rep other people's posts. This is a great start to fixing the problem of REPflation that has happened this last year.

Rep was an arbitrary number that some viewed as a form of popularity while others viewed as a form of legitimacy. The truth, though, is that the top Rep holders were just a group of friends that were very liberal with their use of Rep. While this really did not affect much of the community, it did have some impact, and Typhon saw fit to change it.

He is open to suggestions and feedback, and he said that if someone wanted to start this thread, that would be the place for said suggestions. I personally think that their should be a "Like" system similar to Facebook where each quality/funny/rep-worthy post has a number attached to it as to how many people have liked it, but that each individual person has no number associated with them.

This would also allow the person who likes the post to leave the short private comment like we have been able to. These are just my suggestions, but I have seen others with similar suggestion.

Now, I would like to open it up to anyone who has an idea about what they would like to see in a reputation system, but keep in mind that Typhon is limited to the software that he uses.

Thrumble Funk likes your "like" idea.

I approve of this message

This would work for me, too.

I suspect the only thing that might be a problem is that if it worked as a "Like" counter for an individual post that would probably be more of a drag on the system than a given Rep number for each person, as we had.

If there's any persistent number assigned, it'll be linked in the minds of some to status, and there are some who are simply driven - often without any malice - to game such a system.

If the Rep system sticks with numbers and a rep score, then keep it the flat +1 -- one vote per person -- system that seemed to be played with earlier today.

It's not as if we really needed it anyway.

Sure, it's nice to have a spot where we can see collected in one spot that people liked what we had to say, but I remember a long while back when part of the fun of that was being able to look back months and longer at such things, and to see what was written in the Rep sections of others. When those two features disappeared I figured it was in the former case a matter of system space, and in the latter the problems that arose from Member C getting to see the approval given to member A by Member B for the put-down post A did on C.

If it's going to cause more headaches than something positive, then let it disappear.

I like Chirockers idea. I think even just a counter for messages might be fine as well even though that might be getting too close to the old system we had before. Personally I think how it is right this minute is perfect. No numbers but you can leave a message telling people you liked their post.

Actually, this too. Same effect without the caste system.

Both have merits, though!

The current system just masks over the visible parts of the rep button while allow you to continue to leave feedback. I do believe that a "LIKE" style would be better, but as it's already been said .. having a unique number at the post level would be a waste of resources and not very useful. That being said; I think to compile it at a user level and to expand the number of visible items on the user profile may be better.

Thoughts?

The only thing I'd like to see changed about the way it works right now is for a little icon to pop up where your rep score once was whenever you get a new message. Maybe a little "green light" icon or something.

Are you saying something similar to the "like" but only the poster would be able to see it? You may have to elaborate. I'm somewhat of a computer retard for lack of a better word.

I will say I have turned my rep numbers off multiple times but couldn't see the messages that way. So eventually I would get tired of turning it on and off to see the messages. Like I said I think the way it is now is great.

I'm thinking if the User of an account can only see their own rep and not everyone elses that that might be of some help. Somewhat like what KillerSavage suggested. As well as being able to leave a message to the person whom you have given rep to so they can know why they have been given said rep.
And like Miraclo suggested, putting it on a "+1" basis, one rep = 1 point.

I'm neither a Twitter nor a Facebook user, never have been, so I'm none too familiar with the "Like" button idea, but it seems, from what I've read on the previous thread, that "Like" is more or less the same as Rep.

And for the record, I'm still against the idea of putting the sub-threads for Marvel and DC comics into one thread.

I like the ability to leave messages about a funny/informative/useful post, without cluttering a thread with a "What he said" post.

You're a Win 98 program trying to run on a Vista OS in a Win 7 world.

Don't feel bad. I'm a Win 3.11 for Workgroups program trying to run on an XP OS in a Win 7 world.

I like getting (and, of course, being able to see) the comments, so that's most of it for me. If things stayed as they are now, even, that much would be reasonably served.

It's such a minor matter on such a generally fun and (to me) indispensable fan resource site that if doing anything more with it is going to be a problem, just let it rest.

Anything numerical and someone's going to game it, so then the question becomes "Does that matter?" It seems (as has been said) the weighting of Rep is what allowed it to get out of hand. If points are to be attached, then keep it a flat 1 pt per Rep, regardless of who's giving it. Moving one grain at a time, and not having a power group to curry favor with would likely short circuit most of the perceived problem.

If someone has a new spin on and idea for this, I'd be interested, but I get the impression it's all been said by now.

I come to the site almost entirely for Clix news, use of the units section, and for interaction, as I've met some cool, fun and interesting people here. The positives far outweigh the negatives, and that's only gotten to be more the case as I limited my time in General Discussion. Anything that's going to get in the way of all that - and take the Admin's time away from keeping that going - probably isn't worth the energy.

Handle it however seems most reasonable and sustainable for you, and we should be fine.

And if it's a matter of server space, you can always delete threads that are old and unused. I mean, there must be a hundred or so threads I created for the weekly comicbook releases that are still around. And not to mention ones Dark Crisis use to post weekly. So much trash build-up takes up server space.
Of course, the sad part is if you announced that that was what you were going to do, you'd get a bunch of nut jobs going back and trying to revive threads from 2005 or whatever. Best to use stealth.