# To allow both up and down votes for controling member reputation.



## MannDude (May 14, 2013)

Hey everyone,

As of right now, you're able to add to a member's reputation by clicking the green arrow at the bottom right of their posts and responses. This is a way for those who provide helpful information to be recognized by having high reputation. Now, there _is_ an option to include the ability to remove a member's reputation in the same manner though this feature is disabled at this time.

As a community, I am interested in your opinion. The options include a 'Like' feature, similar to LET's mia 'Thanks' feature. There is the up voting of reputation as we have now, and the same but with the option of down voting as well. Alternatively, there can be nothing, as it could be argued that members shouldn't be able to be rated or judged based on reputation.W

What do you guys think?


----------



## shovenose (May 14, 2013)

I voted for both positive and negative reputation.


----------



## drmike (May 14, 2013)

I voted for up and down voting.  That is if we even have reputation ratings at all.  

Voting systems, my opinion can be destructive to users and moral at times.


----------



## D. Strout (May 15, 2013)

Up votes only. I have a feeling if people can go down, they'll get buried for one small mistake.


----------



## mojeda (May 15, 2013)

I voted for only upvotes, I have found that in my own community that, some would down vote someone for no reason or in situations where most would up vote but others would for whatever reason down vote it even though there is nothing wrong with it other than they dislike the poster. It caused a few arguments and became a hassle to keep both up and down votes at the same time.

In the end it was easier to just do the other one which is likes, because you either like it or you don't which could work the same as just upvotes.


----------



## D. Strout (May 15, 2013)

The fact is that people will much more readily vote down than up, so that's more in danger of abuse, and should be disabled.


----------



## mikho (May 15, 2013)

Voted both up and down.

If the members here can keep a more civil and mature level then on LET, there should be no problems.

If the function should be abused, I see no problem to remove it at that time.


----------



## MannDude (May 15, 2013)

Thanks for the votes and the input everyone. This place is as much yours as it is mine, I just want to make sure we do things fairly around here.

I'll keep this poll going for a while longer and we'll see where we end up.


----------



## Aldryic C'boas (May 15, 2013)

I'm indifferent.  May be just me, but I prefer getting to know someone and basing my opinion of their posts off of that, rather than arbitrary figures such as karma and post count :3


----------



## bfj (May 15, 2013)

Neither...

Reputation is for losers! Albiet it can sometimes help with how / what they post. So neither! If you must only Up Votes (I don't like it when my epeen shrinks =\)


----------



## SeriesN (May 15, 2013)

Inb4 shilling and gangbanging starts with up and down votes


----------



## drmike (May 16, 2013)

@SeriesN, you are a hoot.  Glad to have you on here.  Funny one


----------



## NickM (May 16, 2013)

My vote is to leave downvoting off.  I run a community that has up and down votes enabled, and it's nothing but problems.  People downvote for the most petty reasons - they hold grudges against people and stalk them, downvoting every single post, they organize downvote brigades, etc.  It's gotten so bad that I've had to modify the voting system we use to prevent someone from voting more than a certain number of times per hour and a certain number of times per day.  Granted, the community that I run is full of trolls and other asshats, but the VPS community isn't really much better, and I can easily see us having the same problems here.


----------



## Punjabi (May 16, 2013)

Neither! But definitely need a simple thanks button (& rep shouldn't depend on it). h34r:


----------



## Naruto (May 17, 2013)

I've seen reputation ruin forums. Reasons why it's bad:

1) People with tons of rep gang-rep you with their buddies.

2) People become afraid to post, fearing they will lose rep.

3) This isn't HackForums.net


----------



## Chronic (May 17, 2013)

I think both could be enabled if the downvotes were to be isolated to each individual post. What I mean is that if a post has _x_ upvotes and _y_ downvotes, the acount's reputation change from that particular post is going to be _x__-y _if it's larger than _0_ or _0_ if it's in the negative range. Who voted for which option should also be public, preferably upon hovering over either one of the buttons instead of simply listing the names at the bottom of the page.


----------



## mitgib (May 17, 2013)

D. Strout said:


> Up votes only. I have a feeling if people can go down, they'll get buried for one small mistake.


Why are you singling Damian out? Oh that is my own mind thinking about his 1 mistake and there were pitchforks and torches in minutes.


----------



## jarland (May 17, 2013)

I voted for none. I'm not passionately opinionated on the matter, but my feeling is that the moment people begin to place any value on it you'll just encourage people to trick the system more and do each other a favor that isn't based on anything that matters to the viewer.


----------



## BradND (May 17, 2013)

Please no upvoting or rep system otherwise this place will be hackforums v2. Systems like rep promote childish squabbles..


----------



## VPN.SH (May 17, 2013)

Personally I believe that an up vote only system is the best solution. Based upon what I've seen at other forums, it seems to be used more maturely than an up/down system. It's usually pretty obvious when a user has a bad reputation, but by having it thrown around as an actual figure doesn't seem productive.

I've seen users sign up, get a bad reputation, and then decide to change themselves and start everything from scratch. With a down vote system, people wanting to do this wouldn't be taken seriously until they'd at least evened out the negative votes, and depending on how many people decide to give them negative reputation, the user could lose motivation to better themselves sooner than it takes to gain a good reputation again.

Up votes seem to be used more maturely and will likely result in less arguments.

Just my 2 cents.


----------



## Rallias (May 17, 2013)

shovenose said:


> I voted for both positive and negative reputation.


That means a lot coming from you. Of all people, you'd probably suffer the most from such an ability.


----------

