Disallow Reputation on Profiles

[Thomas K.]

We have discovered that a favorite way to commit reputation abuse is via profiles.

Reputation should be given to high-quality content that deserves it. It's hard to track it on profiles, and there is hardly ever content on profiles (statuses) deserving of reputation. Therefore, we should have the ability to disable the possibility to earn reputation for status updates.

[Joel R]

I wonder if your suggestion is perhaps a surgical solution on much broader questions on reputation.  

Dont get me wrong, the suggestion itself deserves merit.  There probably should be a toggle on all content types, not just status updates. 

But turning off "likes" in status updates isn't going to prevent a person from liking a funny post, or liking every post by a user "just because".  The like system is literally a one-dimensional system trying to capture the gamut of human emotions and responses: informative, funny, winner, agree, disagree, thankful, respect, etc.  And in the case of IPS', the problem is even more exacerbated because it's trying to apply the same one dimensional system to a multitude of content types, that somehow one in-depth and well-written article deserves the same recognition as a spur-of-the-moment status update.  How to measure and recognize reputation is truly a multi-faceted problem.  

I don't think it's an easy solve and IPS will need to revamp and critically think about its approach to content reputation on a suite with different applications, different content types, and different kinds of responses.  At the same time, I have the most hope for IPS because its by far the most mature software in thinking beyond forums and to a suite.  

Until then we'll all keep giving each other "likes."  Just because.  

[Thomas K.]

That is definitely a more insightful reply than I ever thought I would get, Joel. I never thought about reputation like that.

I actually agree that it would involve more thought and will admit that I now partially revoke my original suggestion. Since there are so many components to the suite, I think the entire reputation system needs a good review.

I would at least modify my suggestion to say that IPS should implement settings to allow forum administrators to fine tune where reputation is eligible across the various components of the suite.

[Tripp★]

21 minutes ago, Thomas K. said:

I would at least modify my suggestion to say that IPS should implement settings to allow forum administrators to fine tune where reputation is eligible across the various components of the suite.

Like, liking someone's status or a comment in that status shouldn't count towards the reputation of the user (Amonst other things which should be optional) Where as the content that they've gotten likes on (Posts, Images, Blogs, etc) does count, depending on what kind of promotion of content that Administrator wants to see?

If I understand that correctly then I am also in complete agreement with Joel, and I like the amount of thought he's put into it, a large part of me hopes that this is somehow feasibly possible. 

[MADMAN32395]

If it's that we should just do similar to what Facepunch has; like, agree, disagree, dumb, smart, funny, etc.