Suggestion to Prevent Reputation Abuse

[Phillyman]

I am pretty good when it comes to thinking of ways to misuse a system. As such it would be nice to have these two features built into the Reputation System to prevent abuse.

1) Set a maximum number for how many Negatives/Positives a certain member can assign another. I have my system set up to allow 10 positive and 5 negative votes per day. It would be nice to set up a monthly or weekly limit so that one member cant constantly use his pos/neg votes against 1 member. Maybe like "Only allow 10 Negative votes per month against any given member", the same would have to be done for the Positives so people couldnt just buddy up to inflate their numbers.

2) Another way to abuse would be going back and voting on EVERY post that a member made. As such I think we should have the ability to only let people rate the last (30,60,90) days worth of posts. People should not be able to go back 3 years and give Reputation.

I think those two items will prevent people from abusing the Reputation System, It would also be nice to have a way to search members by their Reputation levels and sort them Acc/Dec.

[bfarber]

[quote name='Phillyman' date='20 August 2009 - 10:47 AM' timestamp='1250779632' post='1846785']
2) Another way to abuse would be going back and voting on EVERY post that a member made. As such I think we should have the ability to only let people rate the last (30,60,90) days worth of posts. People should not be able to go back 3 years and give Reputation.


Why not? What if I did a search for a topic on this site and found a post that clearly and accurately addresses an issue, but it was posted 6 months ago? It may be the first time I've seen the post, and the author truly deserves reputation points for the post, but based on some arbitrary date cut-off they won't get the points?

[Phillyman]

[quote name='bfarber' date='20 August 2009 - 11:03 AM' timestamp='1250780619' post='1846799']
Why not? What if I did a search for a topic on this site and found a post that clearly and accurately addresses an issue, but it was posted 6 months ago? It may be the first time I've seen the post, and the author truly deserves reputation points for the post, but based on some arbitrary date cut-off they won't get the points?


Well if suggestion #1 is put in place, then this could be allowed. But as it is right now, the system can be abused. People should not be able to assign out Negative points to a member over and over again. Even at my low number of 5....thats still 150 points per month that could be used against a member. I have yet to find a way to SEE or PREVENT the abuse that could happen in this system. Are there log files for the Rep system that I can view? I think it would be important to limit the overall number of reputation that one member can directly assign another.

[Wolfie]

[quote name='Phillyman' date='20 August 2009 - 10:47 AM' timestamp='1250779632' post='1846785']
1) Set a maximum number for how many Negatives/Positives a certain member can assign another. I have my system set up to allow 10 positive and 5 negative votes per day. It would be nice to set up a monthly or weekly limit so that one member cant constantly use his pos/neg votes against 1 member. Maybe like "Only allow 10 Negative votes per month against any given member", the same would have to be done for the Positives so people couldnt just buddy up to inflate their numbers.

I like this idea. Per reputation type, have "Limit (positive/negative) points to __ per (day/week/month/year) to the same member." Using 0 to set no limit (ie, as it is now).


[quote name='Phillyman' date='20 August 2009 - 10:47 AM' timestamp='1250779632' post='1846785']
2) Another way to abuse would be going back and voting on EVERY post that a member made. As such I think we should have the ability to only let people rate the last (30,60,90) days worth of posts. People should not be able to go back 3 years and give Reputation.

Why not? What if I did a search for a topic on this site and found a post that clearly and accurately addresses an issue, but it was posted 6 months ago? It may be the first time I've seen the post, and the author truly deserves reputation points for the post, but based on some arbitrary date cut-off they won't get the points?

Should be a cut off based on reputation type. Prevent someone from going to older posts just to give - to someone, but if an older post is helpful, still be able to + them.


[quote name='Phillyman' date='20 August 2009 - 11:22 AM' timestamp='1250781765' post='1846816']
Well if suggestion #1 is put in place, then this could be allowed. But as it is right now, the system can be abused. People should not be able to assign out Negative points to a member over and over again. Even at my low number of 5....thats still 150 points per month that could be used against a member. I have yet to find a way to SEE or PREVENT the abuse that could happen in this system. Are there log files for the Rep system that I can view? I think it would be important to limit the overall number of reputation that one member can directly assign another.

There aren't any log files in place (that I know of at least) but through some SQL queries it is possible to see who get what from who (and who gave what to another member). A tool to utilize that information to create a log file would be nice. Can select to see the details of who a member got points from, gave points to, both or see all records. A timestamp on when a rep point was given would be nice too, so if you see someone going on a rampage of -'s against another member in a limited time period (or a few people doing it), it would help to show potential abuse and something could be done about it.

[bfarber]

[quote name='.Wolfie' date='20 August 2009 - 01:44 PM' timestamp='1250790243' post='1846886']
Should be a cut off based on reputation type. Prevent someone from going to older posts just to give - to someone, but if an older post is helpful, still be able to + them.


Why? Say you have a member who is really knowledgeable about a subject, but has surgery and he's out for 6 months, not visiting your site, etc. In the mean time, users sign up and ask questions, and other users try to answer them. Say one member responds to a question and, perhaps while trying to be helpful, gives really really bad advice, something that could cause a lot of problems. The original "good" member comes back, and sees this. I would say it's reasonable for him to give the user who gave bad advice a "thumbs down" for his post, and then post the correct answer.

Random theoretical scenario and all, but you get the idea.


To me, it's a better idea to just issue warnings to users who can't behave themselves, and tell them to stop acting up on the forums.

[Wolfie]

[quote name='bfarber' date='20 August 2009 - 01:51 PM' timestamp='1250790708' post='1846899']
Why? Say you have a member who is really knowledgeable about a subject, but has surgery and he's out for 6 months, not visiting your site, etc. In the mean time, users sign up and ask questions, and other users try to answer them. Say one member responds to a question and, perhaps while trying to be helpful, gives really really bad advice, something that could cause a lot of problems. The original "good" member comes back, and sees this. I would say it's reasonable for him to give the user who gave bad advice a "thumbs down" for his post, and then post the correct answer.

Random theoretical scenario and all, but you get the idea.

Let's also say that someone gets pissed off at another member or has some sort of an agenda against them *cough* and starts going to past posts just to give neg rep points for as much as they can, regardless of the quality/content of the post. At the very least, there should be an option so admins can be notified when someone is giving rep points (+ or -) to posts over a certain age. So if someone is doing it to be abusive and thinking they can 'get away with it', they'll really be caught. A member giving a rep point here or there to an old post, oh well. But you see the same member giving a few negative points to the same persons posts (older posts of course) and then you know to check it out for potential abuse.

Perhaps instead of a cut off for repping posts, have a 'grace period' for repping posts without a report being generated?


[quote name='bfarber' date='20 August 2009 - 01:51 PM' timestamp='1250790708' post='1846899']
To me, it's a better idea to just issue warnings to users who can't behave themselves, and tell them to stop acting up on the forums.

Without swimming through the SQL, how do you know who is abusing it?

[Brian Garcia]

I had also seen a member get 30-40 positive reputation in one day which seems highly fishy to me. Though if someone had a tool where duplicate accounts can't be created than some people wouldn't be able to make their reputation higher than it seems or negative rep one person repetitively.

Reputation isn't really a big deal but you will have members who worship by it.

[Morrigan]

I'm pretty sure they said finding out was relatively easy as they have to log who repped the posts so they can't rep it again later. <_<

[bfarber]

When you view a member in the ACP you can view all rep they have given and all rep they have received.

[Wolfie]

When about a detailed report like when they gave a rep? Because if you see a neg here and there to the same person then that's one thing, but a whole slew of neg reps to the same person in an extremely short period of time and that could be abuse.

[Adriano Faria]

[quote name='bfarber' date='20 August 2009 - 04:56 PM' timestamp='1250794592' post='1846939']When you view a member in the ACP you can view all rep they have given and all rep they have received.
Where ?

EDIT: nvm.. found!

[Dlf]

I don't know if it's possible right now -- correct me if wrong, but what about IP (address) range & group as well? -- Let the groups that do use the system responsibly use it, while those that can't handle the system are in a different group . . .

[BaRoN30s]

is it possible to remove Reputation given from a member as in the past 48 hrs on my board 1 member has given over 1000 + rep for any old post.. which in theory is spoiling a good idea for all the rest that use it as it should be used. also can he be banned from giving rep out again.? i dont want to ban him as a member as he's a very good regular BUT he's also a bit of a nut case & im guessing thats why he's just giving it to anyone & everyone for nothing.