Reputation - Allow individual users to turn off

[Biker.GA]

One thing I've always despised are reputation systems, whether it be a thumbs up/down, points, or other type of "good ol' boy" system. It would be nice to allow users to have the ability to turn the reputation system on or off based on their personal preferences.

[.Ian]

I guess if an admin knows that some of his members will dislike a function isn't it his job to not enable it?

Not every feature has to be turned on, for want of overload.

Also giving a user choice over everything is, whilst it sounds a great idea, gives an overload to their control panel and confuses them.

One of those fine lines again :)

[Biker.GA]

It's an option in other software packages, and gives the users a choice. While some do like the reputation systems, others (like myself) don't. Allowing users to turn it off via user settings is just one of those "nice touches" that makes a good software package, REALLY good.

[Wolfie]

Also giving a user choice over everything is, whilst it sounds a great idea, gives an overload to their control panel and confuses them.

FaceBook

It's an option in other software packages, and gives the users a choice. While some do like the reputation systems, others (like myself) don't. Allowing users to turn it off via user settings is just one of those "nice touches" that makes a good software package, REALLY good.

While we're at it, let's make it an option to be able to receive positive and/or negative rep, ability to rep others without their being able to rep points you gave, ability to refuse positive and/or negative rep from people who hide who they are, require a reason for positive and/or negative rep points, hide negative rep points from public view, notification of rep points (either positive or negative or both), .....

[.Ian]

While we're at it, let's make it an option to be able to receive positive and/or negative rep, ability to rep others without their being able to rep points you gave, ability to refuse positive and/or negative rep from people who hide who they are, require a reason for positive and/or negative rep points, hide negative rep points from public view, notification of rep points (either positive or negative or both), .....

no need to be sarcastic ;)

[Wolfie]

no need to be sarcastic ;)

I was making a point, go away! :lol:

[Biker.GA]

You were? I made no such request as far as allowing what type of reputation. Some of my users don't like it and would prefer to just turn the blasted thing off. And I agree with them.

[Tanax]

The IPS community is great in many ways but they always have a hard time looking through their "box" of how some things "should" work. Hence Wolfie's reply. I agree with this suggestion. A simple "On/Off" for the user to decide if they want to use the rep system would be fine.

[Mr. Despair]

What exactly would turning on/off reputation for a single user mean? Does it simply mean that user cannot see the reputation that was given to any posts? Or does it mean that no one can rep that user on any of his/her own posts?

[Abomination]

What exactly would turning on/off reputation for a single user mean? Does it simply mean that user cannot see the reputation that was given to any posts? Or does it mean that no one can rep that user on any of his/her own posts?

I believe the point is to hide total reputation points, which is in the user profile along with things like gender and age which can be hidden in IP.Board now.

[Wolfie]

The IPS community is great in many ways but they always have a hard time looking through their "box" of how some things "should" work. Hence Wolfie's reply. I agree with this suggestion. A simple "On/Off" for the user to decide if they want to use the rep system would be fine.

I actually don't believe that the rep system should be part of the core product itself to be honest. Since it's there, I'll use it but not from wanting it. With that in mind, to me it's sort of like allowing a member to optionally disable being ModQ'd, in that if the admin enabled the rep points, then good or bad, it should be enabled. This coming from someone who would benefit from using it (here of all places) to disable getting neg rep points when it's enabled.

At the very very least, if it were to be added, then it should be admin optional to allow (per group) to disable it or not. That way the admin could either force everyone to accept it, allow senior (long term active) members to disable it but forcing new members to develop a reputation before being able to disable it, etc.

I believe the point is to hide total reputation points, which is in the user profile along with things like gender and age which can be hidden in IP.Board now.

My impression is the ability to prevent others from giving any rep points. Which in turn would hide their reputation overall, but the idea is that you wouldn't see any +/- on their posts.

[.Ian]

Was there any need to alter your above post 9 times and so create 9 emails / notifications - or were you trying to prove some point?

[Mr. Despair]

I believe the point is to hide total reputation points, which is in the user profile along with things like gender and age which can be hidden in IP.Board now.

So users can still rep posts, except that they wouldn't be able to see the total rep. In other words, they wouldn't be too influenced by what other people repped?

My impression is the ability to prevent others from giving any rep points. Which in turn would hide their reputation overall, but the idea is that you wouldn't see any +/- on their posts.

Yea, this was one of my initial thoughts. I think we all need to be on the same page. I can think of 3 or more different things that turning rep on and off per member could mean. In this situation I would find it kind of annoying, as you'd want to rep a user, whether positive or negative, but you might not be able to. It kind of makes the topic look off, I mean maybe the first user can be repped, the next two posts can't, the next one can... You'd probably need an option to allow members the option to set it on/off, if that makes sense...

[Wolfie]

Was there any need to alter your above post 9 times and so create 9 emails / notifications - or were you trying to prove some point?

Who? :blink:

[Abomination]

So users can still rep posts, except that they wouldn't be able to see the total rep. In other words, they wouldn't be too influenced by what other people repped?

I believe that is the idea. In another paid script if the system is on, people can rep (leave a little message actually), but the user can choose not to show others what their rep is.

Some forums like to turn of things like post count as well, so as not to have their number of posts influence how valuable their input is. Things like post count and rep may not be good indicators how valuable peoples input is.

[Tanax]

At the very very least, if it were to be added, then it should be admin optional to allow (per group) to disable it or not. That way the admin could either force everyone to accept it, allow senior (long term active) members to disable it but forcing new members to develop a reputation before being able to disable it, etc.

I'll agree there. My point was that something like this should be added as users should have some kind of saying aswell. Not all users wants to use reputation system. I've been member of many forums that uses the rep system that I have wanted to turn off for me.

[bfarber]

I think a system like that would lose a bit of value, however. If users could turn off their reputations, then anyone getting negative repped would just turn it off, so you lose some value in being able to fairly and evenly levy reputation.

The only way I could see this working ok is if when a user turned off their reputation, it simply made reputation board wide "invisible" to them. Other people could rep them and see their rep, but that user wouldn't be able to see their own rep.

[Tanax]

I agree with Brandon. Let users hide reputation from themselves. Also, obviously, they cannot rep other people aswell.

[.Ian]

not so sure - for me it should be either on for all or off for all.

I would not enable the option for people to hide it, as in reality most users would not hide it.

[Tanax]

That's great, then you'll just deny the users the ability to turn off rep for themselves.

[.Ian]

indeed ;)

[Wolfie]

In my darned opinion, it's like this..

First, let's define how it should work.
* Per group settings. (Group can turn it on/off, forced delay between toggles, then per user override to lock someone out of the rep system <-- THAT could be useful)
* If a member turns it off, then it should be off for them completely. As in, not only can others not rep them (good or bad), but they can't rep others as well.
* In order to prevent abuse, each group should have a waiting period settable where they cannot turn it on/off/on/off like a light switch. Once they set it, it sticks for X hours. So if they decide to turn it on to neg rep someone, they can't go back and turn it off again to be a (insert insulting word here) about it. They become open for receiving rep points for X hours.


Okay so now, with that defined, here are my thoughts on it. It's a self defeating addition to the rep system. If everyone who can turn it off does turn it off, then what's the point of the rep system being on to begin with? I can see allowing staff to turn it off (just barely though) to make them immune to abuse or "God like" rep points. But other than that, it would be a feature that would defeat the purpose of the system overall.

Now, IF it happened to get included in a future version of IPB, then no, I wouldn't go throwing tantrums or protesting or anything, because there's nothing saying that I have to use it. Just be something there that wouldn't get used much by me, if at all.