Karma / Points / User-User rating system

[Ashen]

Ok, I've looked around so far, and I can't find a karma/points mod that does what I need, can you help me?

Here's the list of the things the mod must do :
1) Users must rate each other, and the combination of everybody's rating must determine a user's karma score.
2) The ratings must be by a user, on another user. This is user rating, not post or topic rating.
3) Users must not be able to rate themselves.
4) The higher a user is rated, the more their rating counts in determining somebody elses score. Ideally it would be configurable, so that the admin of a forum could set how much more somebody with a high karma score's vote counted then somebody with a low or negative karma score.
5) Karma scores must be able to cause the user to change usergroup within the IB forum system.

Here's a list of very desirable features that I'd really like to have :
1) Users could be moderation qued, banned from the site, stopped posting, or have a number of other punative actions taken on them if their karma score drops below a certain number.
2) Similarly, users with higher karma scores should either be promoted into different groups (dependant on karma score), or they should be able to have their rank changed in some way by the karma score system.
3) The admin (the board owner, who initially installs this mod) should be given as much choice in configuring the mod as possible.
4) The admin should have the specific choice of how much each user's rating counts. For example, it should be possible to individually set a user's ability to rate others on or off, indepdent of their score. Admins should also be able to set how much more influence on karma scores the vote of somebody who has a high score counts then someone who has a low or negative score. Admins should be able to set the scale or multiplier used to handle scoring.
5) Definable user groups (such as the root admin group) should either not be able to be rated by users, or they should be protected so their karma score can never possibly drop below 0, or whatever level required to avoid punative actions such as banning.


So far, I've seen the silverstars mod, IBStore, and various currency mods......... none of which accomplish this feature set.

I'd personally very much like to see a mod that does this, and might even be willing to pay money to see it developed.

Please bear in mind that not everyone using IBForums is the webhost for a company. Some of us (like myself) are simply webmasters of very small, isolated community sites where reputation is very important and we don't have a huge userbase or a lot of money.

I've looked around, and so far, I can't find any mod that does the above things...... if I've missed something obvious, please let me know. If there is in fact no mod that does this - what would it take to get one made up? As I write this there are several suggestions for this very karma mod on invision forums such as this one ("points system", a few topics below this) and the invision mod sites.

- a cautiously optimistic Henry H.

[Jasonawojo]

I really do not like the idea of rating users. Personally if anything I would like to see the ability to rate threads in specified forums but I think rating users is not really needed and better left as a modification.

Invisionize has a general modification request forum where you could explain your need for such a mod and see if other users express interest in it at http://forums.invisionize.com/index.php?showforum=22 :)

[Dlf]

And I see seveal bugs. The mods and admins might get a low rating and then they get banned from the site. Same with the members that "rat" out the bad members they get bad ratings, and those that do bad things would make more accounts give their "main" acocu nt a higher rating and the "mods" or "rats" lower.

[Ashen]

I really do not like the idea of rating users.

That's fine - but imho a lot of users do want this sort of thing, and making it avalible would make more people want to use your software,
and hence more money in your pocket.

Personally if anything I would like to see the ability to rate threads in specified forums but I think rating users is not really needed and better left as a modification.

I asked specifically if anyone knows of a mod that does this. I realise that you may not want to incorperate this into your main forum software,
but a mod that does it would be imho well recieved by the IB community. People want it... as is indicated by the fact it's been requested so many
times across the IP company forums and the mod development forums.

Invisionize has a general modification request forum where you could explain your need for such a mod and see if other users express interest in it at

http://forums.invisionize.com/index.php?showforum=22

I've checked there before, but I'll do so again and post a thread similar to this one there, to try to stirr up interest.


With regard to "dlf"'s two 'problems' with this suggestion, I'll take each in turn.

The mods and admins might get a low rating and then they get banned from the site.

I already thought of this, and if you re-read my post above you'll find I already had a solution to this problem.

5) Definable user groups (such as the root admin group) should either not be able to be rated by users, or they should be protected so their karma score can never possibly drop below 0, or whatever level required to avoid punative actions such as banning.

Next problem...

Same with the members that "rat" out the bad members they get bad ratings' date=' and those that do bad things would make more accounts give their "main" acocu nt a higher rating and the "mods" or "rats" lower.[/quote']

Not possible, as I already said above in my requirements for the way the karma system would work :

This would mean that new users would have next to no rating power. New accounts would not be able to effect the karma scores of existing accounts

very much or at all. This could be done in many ways ways :

a) users must have a certain (admin configurable) post count or usergroup before they can rate other users

b) users must have a certain level of karma themselves before they can rate other users

c) the impact of a user's karma rating on another user is proportional to how high the rating user's karma is.

Using these safeguards, the problem you describe would not occur becuase the new accounts would not have any karma... and thus their ratings would not effect the person's primary account at all.

It is possible that a user could build up multiple different user accounts, which all rated each other highly all the time, and thus served to gain higher scores from each other. However, doing this would be very hard as each account would have to be highly rated by the forum's users in order to have any influence, and if a person is able to have many different accounts all of which people individually rate highly, why would they need multiple accounts at all? Why not just post those good posts under their primary account and have all their karma on their primary account?

[Ashen]

*bump*

[andrew_wallasey]

I like this idea and I also like a thread rating feature. I like the idea of the "reputation comments" which can be added by users and viewed by the user/admin which is in Vbulletin (not sure if it's a mod).

[Michael_C]

I don't think its necessary and has too many flaws, moderators and admins(who should be fair and balanced) can use the warning system if you want a way to ban people when they do too many 'bad' things.

[Ashen]

I don't think its necessary and has too many flaws, moderators and admins(who should be fair and balanced) can use the warning system if you want a way to ban people when they do too many 'bad' things.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's not necessary - but then, most of the things IB does are not necessary.
They're done becuase people WANT them, becuase they're convenient and enjoyable.

As for having too many flaws :
1) Nobody has yet shown any way in which this idea is flawed. There have been a few 'oh I don't like this becuase X, Y and Z' posts, but I've replied to those and shown that the reasons they don't like the idea are really pretty stupid.

2) You miss the point entirely with regard to the mods/admins thing. I want a mod that puts bans and overall reputation in the hands of the user community, not just a few admins. I want a mod that lets the admins choose how much power to give this user/user rating system (does it just do points, do higher scoreres get bonusses, or is it fully moderation-enabled in that higher scorers get moderation ability and low/negative scorers get banned?).

You seem to misunderstand the system entirely. Either you just have a different mindset to me (which is no bad thing, it takes different strokes to make up the world)...... or you're just not reading what I've written carefully enough.

I don't expect everyone to like/want this mod - I'm just saying it would be a good mod to make as there are a lot of people out there who seem to want it. Everyone keeps bringing up the fact vBulletin can do this - do you really want everyone who wants this feature plumping for vBulletin instead, and you losing money?

-Ashen

[Mod Hack Skin]

I really do not like the idea of rating users. Personally if anything I would like to see the ability to rate threads in specified forums but I think rating users is not really needed and better left as a modification.

Invisionize has a general modification request forum where you could explain your need for such a mod and see if other users express interest in it at

http://forums.invisionize.com/index.php?showforum=22

:)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

While I'm all for rating individual posts, I must agree... Rating users is just WRONG.

Karma is for pre-schoolers. Nobody serious about their biz puts Karma on thier boards.

[buster]

And I see seveal bugs. The mods and admins might get a low rating and then they get banned from the site. Same with the members that "rat" out the bad members they get bad ratings, and those that do bad things would make more accounts give their "main" acocu nt a higher rating and the "mods" or "rats" lower.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i have a xmb forum with karma system , :ermm: they gave me -22 karma points

i had to disable it for not to look stupid , i think reputations is good but karma is not good o:)

[Ashen]

While I'm all for rating individual posts, I must agree... Rating users is just WRONG.

Karma is for pre-schoolers. Nobody serious about their biz puts Karma on thier boards.

According to you - but many people want it. And they don't really care if you think it's wrong. Look around, there are threads on this on all the forums.

Oh, and for the record, I take my business very seriously, and I want a karma mod to give my forum a more community feel to it.

On a social note, I'm not going to laugh at you becuase you think Karma mod is a bad idea, so don't act like a child and do it to me.

i have a xmb forum with karma system , :ermm:  they gave me -22 karma points

i had to disable it for not to look stupid , i think reputations is good but karma is not good  o:)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Imho, if your users assigned you a negative karma score, then it's obvious either :
1) they don't like you
or
2) you configured the karma mod wrongly

In the second case, I still think society should have alcohol, guns etc even though some people can't use them properly.
In the first case, if your own forum users don't even like you, then why are you running a forum for them?

Surely if people rated you as -22..... then you should talk to them and ask them why? Just turning off the notification does not help, it just hides the problem.

This is exactly why I want a karma mod - it's brutally honest in ways few other systems are, and it does protect admins (admin groups can't be banned or punished for negative reputation). Really, it adds a useful new way of assessing users, and contrary to the number of people that have posted 'but, my users don't like me! What if they rate me really low?', that is not a problem if you have protected groups.

-Ashen

[andrew_wallasey]

Imho, if your users assigned you a negative karma score, then it's obvious either :

1) they don't like you

or

2) you configured the karma mod wrongly

In the second case, I still think society should have alcohol, guns etc even though some people can't use them properly.

In the first case, if your own forum users don't even like you, then why are you running a forum for them?

Surely if people rated you as -22..... then you should talk to them and ask them why? Just turning off the notification does not help, it just hides the problem.

This is exactly why I want a karma mod - it's brutally honest in ways few other systems are, and it does protect admins (admin groups can't be banned or punished for negative reputation). Really, it adds a useful new way of assessing users, and contrary to the number of people that have posted 'but, my users don't like me! What if they rate me really low?', that is not a problem if you have protected groups.

-Ashen

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree 110%.