Wait.. what.. why?

[Canis Lupus]

Saw this reply to a suggestion in the suggestion section. Why in gods name would you make reputation less present? What purpose does that serve?

 

[Mick]

Not reputation, but the reputation total number.

In our recent suggestion asking for community feedback on the reputation system updates, one aspect of the changes was:

• We will be removing the display of reputation totals from all areas of our site except the reputation tab and overview page, where the toggle option will be located and where they’ll be encouraged to read the contents of the feedback.

At the moment people focus far too much on the reputation total number rather than the actual content of the feedback, so forcing them to visit this page would encourage everyone to read through reputation before blindly assuming a 20 reputation person is reputable or a +5 reputation person isn't.

If you have any specific feedback about the changes we're hoping to make, please leave it here: https://www.mc-market.org/threads/544506/

 

[Canis Lupus]

REDACTED

Hmm yeah. I can see where you're coming from. However does it really change anything? Let's say these changes were already in place when this event happened. Would it end any differently? The only difference is that the person would have to take extra steps to actually view your total reputation. I mean yeah sure this makes the person more likely to actually read the reviews/vouches, but then again what difference does that make? Pretty much all rep is the same. People vouching each other for stuff they have bought or sold. "Vouch! Sold this user an Optifine Cape! Transaction was silky smooth. Would deal with again!"

This will not prevent exit scams. Nor will it prevent low reputation users from scamming. Or have I misunderstood something?

 

[Lotus]

Hmm yeah. I can see where you're coming from. However does it really change anything? Let's say these changes were already in place when this event happened. Would it end any differently? The only difference is that the person would have to take extra steps to actually view your total reputation. I mean yeah sure this makes the person more likely to actually read the reviews/vouches, but then again what difference does that make? Pretty much all rep is the same. People vouching each other for stuff they have bought or sold. "Vouch! Sold this user an Optifine Cape! Transaction was silky smooth. Would deal with again!"

This will not prevent exit scams. Nor will it prevent low reputation users from scamming. Or have I misunderstood something?

The point Mick is trying to make is changing the focus of reputation from quantity to quality. A 15 rep user with detailed experiences written in their reputation and having engaged in larger value deals certainly sounds a lot more appealing to me than a 50 rep user who only engages in short, low quality $1 deals. Encouraging people to read feedback will definitely help distinguish these differences more openly and perhaps change the minds of buyers dealing with sellers, ever so slightly or majorly.

By indirectly changing the focus of users away from the 'number' and moving them to actually read all the feedback given to the user, prospectors will at least hold a better understanding of who they are dealing with compared to the previous format.

The difference is minor, but it is better than not changing the format.