Remove/fix the reputation system

[Chearful]

Let's be real here, nobody really takes the reputation system seriously any more.

It was, originally, supposed to be used to show members which are legitimate and trustworthy, through deals.

Deals should not mean:

• Giving out Steam keys in return for rep.
• Offering or buying < $1 services/items and then asking for rep on each transaction (well, this is kind of a deal, but the community generally hates people who do this).
• Opinions of users based on their content produced on site without a transaction.

It is of my opinion, that rep should be around deals only. It should've been like this from day one, but gradually over time I have seen staff gradually start bending the true reason of the system, to that of an opinion system.

If you would like to gauge the community's opinion on someone, the member's reactions are a good place to start.

A negative reputation on a member's profile can make or break whether or not a deal is going to take place. Sure, if someone doesn't like you and so they hit you with a negative reputation, it should be immediately obvious that the rep likely isn't going to effect a deal.

And so, I propose either of the following:

Suggestion #1:
Make rep for deals and deals only. If something happened during the transaction such as the buyer/seller being rude, toxic etc. then you could leave a negative reputation. If we did this, then you'd need to prune every single rep in existence to accomplish this in a meaningful way but would allow a fresh slate for everybody. This reset would also provide the opportunity to implement stricter rules over when rep is and isn't classed as valid.

Suggestion #2:
Allow users to enter how much $USD was transacted when adding/editing rep. If it was a trade, then take the rough USD equivalent. To prevent certain members from buying/selling $1 services/products to get rep, or to show that the rep is of an opinion without a transaction taking place, if the amount of $USD transacted was less than say, $5, the reputation will not count towards the totals for each type of rep but will still be visible:

and on the rep, it will show the amount of $USD transacted, something like this:

If the amount is below $5 for example, as well as it not contributing to the overall totals for each type of rep, it will display a slight indicator on the rep showing it was of low value. Perhaps something like this:

The advantage of this route is that it will still allow people to give their little bullshit-like reps over pure opinions, but will also make a clear distinction between what is a deal, and what was just an opinion.

A disadvantage of this, is that reps that have already been left will not have the value transacted in them, only newly added/edited reps will. To solve this, any pre-existing rep would still stay and count towards reputation totals, but members could ask staff to set the transaction value to whatever it was if the party who left the rep is refusing to do so after being asked by the recipient to edit it.

Last time I made a suggestion, the community seemed to take my example numbers very literally. The $5 is an arbitrary number and would be adjusted.

inb4 shit storm

 

[Justis]

Removing the reputation system is not a viable option.
Converting back to deals only is also not a viable option for our specific platform.

However, I have wanted to implement more fields for reputation based on the reasons they're leaving it, to ensure that each reputation review is as informative as it can possibly be.
This, in addition to my desire to reduce the positive/negative point value aspect of reputation from being given such weight and significance due to our styling and means of displaying that information.
I have always wanted the value of reputation to be focused around the content of the review, not the point value associated with it.

Combining these two things, I believe, is the best possible future our reputation system could have.
To have a more detailed form outlining the structure and necessary information, and removing the positive/negative emphasis. Emphasizing instead the content itself as the source of value.

 

[Cal]

I have to say I disagree.

As much as I would love to think this forum is based on transactions around the example of $100-150. I would have to say that the overwhelming majority of transactions I've completed on this forum have been in the $5-25 range. This would hugely affect many people including myself in day to day dealings. I find myself purchasing many of the smaller items like builds and domains which don't typically jump higher than that.

This would also make it much more difficult for new users who haven't established and income stream and don't have many posts on the site to gain a presence. Many do things like discord setups or steam key giveaways so that they can gain a presence so that they can do the larger deals that would benefit from this system. The other part is that this is heavily biased towards the account selling pages, not taking into consideration the other 20 some odd categories that generally operate in much smaller numbers for most deals.

I am not saying change is not needed. I would say change in a different form. Something that would allow more detail in a reputation while retaining the functionality of the current system.

 

[Chearful]

I have to say I disagree.

As much as I would love to think this forum is based on transactions around the example of $100-150. I would have to say that the overwhelming majority of transactions I've completed on this forum have been in the $5-25 range. This would hugely affect many people including myself in day to day dealings. I find myself purchasing many of the smaller items like builds and domains which don't typically jump higher than that.

This would also make it much more difficult for new users who haven't established and income stream and don't have many posts on the site to gain a presence. Many do things like discord setups or steam key giveaways so that they can gain a presence so that they can do the larger deals that would benefit from this system. The other part is that this is heavily biased towards the account selling pages, not taking into consideration the other 20 some odd categories that generally operate in much smaller numbers for most deals.

I am not saying change is not needed. I would say change in a different form. Something that would allow more detail in a reputation while retaining the functionality of the current system.

I have to say I disagree.

I knew someone would bring this up which is exactly why I added:

Last time I made a suggestion, the community seemed to take my example numbers very literally. The $5 is an arbitrary number and would be adjusted.

The $5 is just a random number. For all I care, it could be $1 as a boundary between low value and high value.

Giving out steam keys in return for rep is already a violation of the rules:

9.4 Do not use reputation as a currency, reward, condition, incentive, punishment or deterrent.

Removing the reputation system is not a viable option.
Converting back to deals only is also not a viable option for our specific platform.

However, I have wanted to implement more fields for reputation based on the reasons they're leaving it, to ensure that each reputation review is as informative as it can possibly be.
In addition to my desire to remove the positive/negative aspect of reputation from being given such weight/significance due to the styling and means of displaying that information.
I have always wanted the value of reputation to be focused around the content of the review, not the point value it represents.

Combining these two things, I believe, is the best possible future our reputation system could have.
To have a more detailed form outlining the structure of reputation, as well as necessary information, and removing the point based weight that they have. Emphasizing the content itself as the source of value.

I agree with you to an extent, but I still think reputation should have a point system, since it gives you a general idea of a user quite quickly. If I worded it in my OP correctly, I feel that if, based on the additional input fields the reputation is judged to be of "low value" transaction/of an opinion without a transaction, then it will not count towards the amount of points a user has which will make it a lot clearer over who has done the most in worthwhile transactions rather than stupid transactions that are less than a dollar in order to gain rep quickly.

 

[Ivain]

we are nonspecifically using "reputation as a currency".

reputation is used to show that a deal went well, wrong, or that they would like to comment as a reputation modification.

vouch copies wouldn't exist if your logic was true.

if i give someone rep for an account, they should say "thanks for the vouch/rep" or whatever. it's a vouch copy to gain rep, not farm it.

Reputation is not only done for deals, and it is also not in any way required after a deal. It's up to each individual party.

 

[Chearful]

Reputation is not only done for deals, and it is also not in any way required after a deal. It's up to each individual party.

I am aware that it is not required for each deal, I am not suggesting that it should be a requirement to rep for every deal.

I feel that there are other ways to judge the community's opinion of a user than the reputation system. There should be an easier way to determine what the community's opinion of a user is compared to what they are like in business situations.

 

[Jerry]

*gets one negative reputation*

I agree with this though, people farm rep for being nice or begging for it which is again against the rules. It’s out of control how people are just going nuts on the reputation ratings.

Maybe having a more central place for deal vouches might be more appropriate.

 

[Blaze]

I agree 100% that rep should be only for deals

 

[Somei]

I agree

 

[Hannes]

I agree

http://usetheagreebutton.com/

 

[Chearful]

Someone’s not too happy about his neg rep.


Just kidding, I support lmao

I got my (false) neg rep after this suggestion was made

 

[Somei]

http://usetheagreebutton.com/

Oh sorry didn't know that... thanks for showing me

 

[Jerry]

Obviously there's an issue because a certain ban evader was able to obtain 20 positive rep from just sitting in the shout box all day. 10 days and she was 'more reputable' than some users here months.

vouch copies wouldn't exist if your logic was true.

Just now reading through other replies and I wanted to comment on this, I personally don't think vouch copies should be eligible for rep. That is essentially buying rep. A vouch copy should count for a vouch on a thread and nothing else but everybody is different in the way they like to do things.

 

[Mick]

We do plan on making changes to the reputation system (basically the ones announced in a suggestion a few months back and a few others) to help ensure that reputation is truly representative of your standing within the community, but at the moment we're not going to implement any of the ideas you suggested here. We definitely aren't removing the system or making it deals only.

Denied, thanks for the suggestion.