Who would like to see a Reputation system built into IPB?

[Alex]

Yeah we did pick up where someone left off, and we hate the code, that is why we have been a bit edgy when coming to add things into the 4.x series, but again, with the 5.x series, it will be 100% our code, which means it will be better :P

I just don't really think it should be a standard feature, there are lots of other mods (group name indicators, report systems etc.), that IMO would suit better base features, but still arent added.

[Anonymous IPB User]

Professionally done polls are done randomly (usually through random digit dialing) and are arranged such that the surveyors contact the participants, not the other way around. The fact that this is a voluntary poll in of itself introduces an extreme amount of response bias, particularly among those who have no reason to frequent these forums. Just take any basic statistics course and you'll be able to see why it's possible to extrapolate (to a certain extent) in particular situations, but not in others.

Actually, I have taken a few statistics classes, although it has been a while. All polls are voluntary, I have yet had to take an involuntary poll. If a pollster calls my house, I have the ability to either take the poll or not take the poll. Funny, just now I received a phone call (as I was typing this) from AT&T asking me how I liked their service. I guess they could have called a radom person who may not have ever used AT&T and asked them, but I don't think that would yeild much useful information. In addition, many polls are conducted when the participants contact the pollsters (such as the foxnews text message polls, focus groups you find online, and others), therefore, that statement is incorrect. Those who frequent this forum are those who own and use IPB, and therefore, aren't those the opinions which should be taken into account? Why would one contact people who do not own or use IPB and get their opinion on whether or not IPB should have a reputation system? How is this poll biased one way or the other?

[Anonymous IPB User]

Profiles have comments and ratings - what is needed beyond that is missing to the point where a "reputation system" is warranted? I think comments and ratings are the basic underpinnings, don't you?

There are a few major differences. First, the profile ratings do not reward the poster for each good post they contribute. Next, as others have mentioned, giving someone a negative rating can lead to problems, hurt feelings, etc, and this is why a reputation system should only allow positive reputation to be given. This will solve the problem of negative reputation problems. In addition, giving someones profle a bad rating is saying the member is not good, eventhough they may contribute good posts once in a while. These are all reasons to have a positive only reputation system. In addition, these profile ratings and comments are public (we are unable to make them private), which may lead some people to not commenting, or not saying what they really think; and if a member has a bad rating, and its public, they may not wish to remain a member on the forum.

The reputation system based on only positive and private reputation is good for a forum for several reasons. First, it encourages more posting (since you can only get positive reputation if you post, and if people can only rep you for each post once, you have to post more to get a higher repuatation). Afterall, forums live on posting, and therefore, more posting means a livier forum. Next, it encourages quality posts from members, since in my experience people enjoy getting rep points, and therefore they will post more, and the post quality is usually much better. It has also been my experience that posters give more rep to a good post than to a bad post. And lastly, it rewards those who take the time to give good answers or posts on a forum.

[Anonymous IPB User]

Yeah we did pick up where someone left off, and we hate the code, that is why we have been a bit edgy when coming to add things into the 4.x series, but again, with the 5.x series, it will be 100% our code, which means it will be better :P

I understand that you are working on it, but this has been in the works for a very long time and seems to have been shelved for other mods (socializer). Is there really going to be a 5.x series? I think you should charge a nominal fee of say $5.00 for each person whom downloads it. I am sure many, perhaps even 180 people would pay that small fee to have such a system for their forum, and it wouldn't be a bad payoff for your time.

I just don't really think it should be a standard feature, there are lots of other mods (group name indicators, report systems etc.), that IMO would suit better base features, but still arent added.

I personally hate adding mods onto my forum, and every time I update my forum I vow to never install another mod, but IPB just comes up short in many areas. For example, in the area of warnings issued, the system has a major flaw of not letting all the other mods know the member had a warning and not creating a record of the incident. There was a rapsheets mod which worked great, but it was had its own problems too. Same goes for the report post feature on IPB, it needs to be overhauled so that not every single moderator gets a report, but perhaps, just have it create a post in a forum so every mod knows which reports have and have not been taken care of.

Another essential mod was the qued posts mod, it made it easy to find posts which needed to be approved. Again, these seem like they should be standard features for IPB. I do understand from the programmers point of view that its impossible to add every single mod as a standard feature, but IPB should take polls and find out the top features which would be helpful to those who own IPB and use it daily. Anyway, I don't want to get off onto a different topic, but I really hate adding mods to my forum. Not only do they cause problems in many cases (do not work correctly), but you lose them every single time there is a forum upgrade.

In short, I hate adding mods. :P

[atomicknight]

Actually, I have taken a few statistics classes, although it has been a while.

Then look up response bias and you'll see why your argument falls through the floor. Polls are voluntary, but for a poll to be considered "fair," the people who are chosen to answer the poll cannot all be "volunteered" by themselves. Those text message polls are just a very rough measure of response - ask any professional statistician and they'll dismiss those results due to response bias. The only people who respond to such polls are those who have extreme opinions about the subject at hand. Obviously it should be limited to people with exposure to the software, but how does having it on this forum solve anything? Anyone can sign up for an account and vote here, regardless of whether they'd actually be affected in any way. You really can't run a "fair" poll on the Internet unless you have a huge sample size and ensure that your target audience is actually voting at a high enough rate. That's why the poll is biased.

But in any case, I'm just going to stop replying since this is getting completely off topic.

[Anonymous IPB User]

Then look up response bias and you'll see why your argument falls through the floor. Polls are voluntary, but for a poll to be considered "fair," the people who are chosen to answer the poll cannot all be "volunteered" by themselves.

This has nothing to do with response bias, response bias occurs due to loaded or baised questions, or is not a representative sample, which I clearly believe it is. Isn't voting in an election the same thing as a volunatry poll? Do we say elections results are not scientifically valid since the people participating are doing so volunatrily? Do we say voting in elections are not "fair" since those voting are not chosen by the goverment or some other entity? In what ways specifically is this poll biased?

Those text message polls are just a very rough measure of response - ask any professional statistician and they'll dismiss those results due to response bias. The only people who respond to such polls are those who have extreme opinions about the subject at hand.

But, how does having an extreme opinion about the subject at hand make the polls scientifically invalid? I can see how this would be the case if those setting up the poll used biased questions, but not when those we are participating are biased. For example, those whom support candidate A will be just as "extreme" as those whom support candidate B, candidate C, and onward. Therefore, the poll would correctly reflect the views of those who are commited to a candidate. The same goes for the straw polls, yet we don't say they are inaccurate. In addition, those who enter the polling booth also have extreme opinions regarding their candate, yet we don't throw out the entire election do to these biases, since the biases of the others voting blocks equal it all out.

Obviously it should be limited to people with exposure to the software, but how does having it on this forum solve anything? Anyone can sign up for an account and vote here, regardless of whether they'd actually be affected in any way. You really can't run a "fair" poll on the Internet unless you have a huge sample size and ensure that your target audience is actually voting at a high enough rate. That's why the poll is biased.

I am under the impression that one must be an owner of IPB in order to be a member of this forum. Am I incorrect in this assumption? But, regardless, if they are members here, they use IPB and thier opinions are equally valid since they are either IPB forum owners or users. Why else would they be here? Although I would not say this poll is scientifically valid, I would say it is fairly accurate in terms of what IPB board owners and users want.

[iMMENSE]

Actually this forum is open for anyone to register. This means you can register without being a IPS Client :)

[Graeme S.]

My feeling on this topic is that the reason people want a reputation system is because people enjoy being rewards for helping out others. When someone posts a really useful link, simple reinforcement (yes, psychology!) such as a thumbs up, or in this case, reputation points, can lead to increased occurrence of people helping out. It's really quite simple psychology that people enjoy helping out when there is some reward to gain.

It's possible that flame wars can start, but I think the majority of users end up subconsciously competing for higher reputation (generally through posting helpful things).

Essentially I am saying that a reputation of sorts is a great idea :). Or at least a built in "thank you" type of mod.

[Lindsey_]

come on it is now

Yes [ 195 ] [66.33%]
No [ 92 ] [31.29%]
Maybe (see my response below) [ 7 ] [2.38%]


So please build it in

[Alex]

Lindsey, this topic has had 19,928 views, yet only 292 votes, doesn't that say that alot of people have not actually voted?

[~Dopey~]

I think a rating system on users is wrong to have, rating one member over another is uncalled for in a community.

[Graeme S.]

I think a rating system on users is wrong to have, rating one member over another is uncalled for in a community.

I also agree with this.

I still believe that members need a way to show their thanks/appreciation in some way, shape or form that is not simply a message of thanks.

[iMMENSE]

Hmm I am surpised on how this topic has developed and the number of people who have voted. I have been checking this periodically and the discussion has progressed. Personally I am with Alex and others and think that many forums do not require a Reputation system.

[cinek]

Hmm I am surpised on how this topic has developed and the number of people who have voted. I have been checking this periodically and the discussion has progressed. Personally I am with Alex and others and think that many forums do not require a Reputation system.

I agree with iMMENSE, not every1 uses the reputation system + there r only 299 votes n I'm sure IPS has more customers, if any1 needs it, they can install it as an addon

[Chewman]

I think this is a great idea. I've seen it on some other non IPB boards that I post on and it is a great feature. If it's not going to be included, I'll consider adding the mod, but I'd rather not go through all of that.

[Louis M.]

I think that if the mod system was a lot more flexable (ie not having to so many redo file edits / skin edits)then this might be a lot easier to implement as a mod. That does sorta derail this thread, but I know that even simple mods require an annoying amount of file / skin edits.

[Deco20]

Hello,

I believe my case is a good example: I was very interesting on installing this software until I realized that no reputation system is available. Yes, I can instal a mod but I don't want to intall mods that changes the database storing info that will be lost if I change to another software forum in the future (or even if an official reputation system appears). Because of that I can not purchase this soft... maybe in the future (who knows...)

Anyhow keep up the good work

Best regards

[Watty]

Hello,

I believe my case is a good example: [b]I was very interesting on installing this software until I realized that no reputation system is available.[/b] Yes, I can instal a mod but I don't want to intall mods that changes the database storing info that will be lost if I change to another software forum in the future (or even if an official reputation system appears). Because of that I can not purchase this soft... maybe in the future (who knows...)

Anyhow keep up the good work

Best regards

Hands down the BEST reason I've ever heard for not buying IPB. :thumbsup:

:blink:

[Deco20]

Hands down the BEST reason I've ever heard for not buying IPB. :thumbsup:

:blink:

In my opinion is a very important function on those forums that depends on the collaboration of their members. Many of them needs to feel that their collaboration is being useful for other people. I would install a mod but then I might loose all the reputations if I need to migrate to other software forum.

There are forums that do not need this, there is even people against these systems but they are also forums that need some kind of reputation, points or whatever.

[Morrigan]

I said Maybe because If it were a dual use as in not necessarily just reputation, you could choose it to be a shop/point thing then I'd be all for it but reputation on a whole sorta just doesn't sit right with me unless I were to have some intricate RP based site where you had to have reputation to get to some place.