Bring Back Rep It Was Fun

[Lunasa]

Honestly, Rep or not, I know who contributes to this board. I know who can help me if I get in a sticky situation. You know the people who try their hardest to keep this place up and running. Hell, all Rep is, well. It's like a gold star that you got in elementary school. I'm pretty sure this forum COULD deal without it. What did you do before the rep system was in place? You still praised each other for good contribution. I wasn't here, but I'm sure of it. Honestly, there are many people around here who make good points that don't get a rep. They get no pat on the back. They don't need it. They simply said stuff to contribute. Isn't that what a forum is all about, anyways?

[Rikkuffx]

See, that's the abuse. That's what's wrong with people. The purpose of rep isn't to rep people back as a thanks. It may seem harmless, but that's abuse. Sure, you can rep them back.. but only if they have an equally good post of contribution. Then that's fine.

Rep isn't supposed to be a popularity contest. It's supposed to show who contributed the most to the forum as a whole.

That's where it went all wrong.

Well I didnt always rep as a thanks I did rep peoples posts because i enjoyed them. plus ive been using visitor messages the last few days as thanking people for the reps instead of repping them back but anyway,i'm not aguing i'm just saying i didnt realize it was abuse. I'm very sorry that I "abused" it not many people know that repping people back is abuse,i didnt until you just pointed that out maybe there should be a post on Rep rules next time. That way new members will know when its okay to rep and when you shouldnt.

Oh and I dont think of it as a popularity contest LOL i'm not in highschool anymroe,i could care less about popularity or reps. i can live without them I am just saying it was a nice feature to have.

[darkViVi]

That what the forum is for,to have fun. But rep was nice,it made me feel good at least when I would get reps knowing people appreciated my posts and then i'd rep them back as a thanks.

I don't really know what to say here..

They simply said stuff to contribute. Isn't that what a forum is all about, anyways?

Indeedy.

For f sake, I have been begged for rep on instant messaging. how sad is that really? Even though I have refused, they kept on begging...

EDIT:

That way new members will know when its okay to rep and when you shouldnt.

Now I'm speechless again

[darkViVi]

Well I was just saying that when someone did rep me it was good and its just nice,it actually makes me feel like people enjoy reading my posts. I cant believe people would actually bed for rep,thats sad.

There...is a quote feature... yay?

[Govinda]

WTF, calm down.

Sheena, I understand that not all decisions taken by the staff should pass before the eyes of members. That is obvious. However, this choice was about something all of us were involved in, something that we all used, something that most of us liked and are sad to see go. However, I have accepted now that it is dead.

Regardless, the reasons for its deletion are bugging me a little now. I completely and wholeheartedly agree with removing it to stop people from ganging up on people they didn't like. However, getting rid of it because some people repped their friends quite a lot ('abuse')...what the hell? Who honestly cares if people give more rep to people that they know and like? This means that the member ends up with more littel green bits...so what? Was anyone counting, apart from Merlin?

I would also like to reiterate that I genuinely think you guys do a great job. I am not trying to challenge your authority or your choices (just would be nice if we knew about some of them, forum-wide ones, before they happened), so please don't post in this thread all bolshy-sounding. Nobody's angry or upset.

And I don't care if rep wasn't created for fun. It ended up, for me at least, being a bit of fun. So there

As for saving TFF, I don't know anyone who would be even remotely interested in joining this place, otherwise I would have invited them. I often question my own repeated return here, to be honest. I don't really have a vested interest in 'saving TFF'. I just figured that you lot might.

[Walter Sobchak]

He who complains the most rants about people complaining. With each passing day, I learn new limits for irony.

Seriously, "abuse it"? What were they doing? Trading rep for food stamps? The worst thing they could do would be..? I can't think of any possible scenario.

[Victoria]

However, getting rid of it because some people repped their friends quite a lot ('abuse')...what the hell? Who honestly cares if people give more rep to people that they know and like? This means that the member ends up with more little green bits...so what? Was anyone counting, apart from Merlin?

I don't really have a vested interest in 'saving TFF'. I just figured that you lot might.

That's only partly why. Not the complete reason. Like I said.. it wasn't political. Hence why there was no prior discussion before its removal.

And honestly, yeah, that may sound harmless and like it's natural, but guess what? That's not how it was supposed to be used. I said before how it was supposed to be properly used.

And honestly, if you're going to preech around "who cares", why bother making a fuss of its removal? That means you obviously care a hell of a lot. I mean, making a thread JUST as it was removed. Not even a week after, just mere minutes. Talk about a vast amount of caring. If you don't care, why fuss about it?

That's all I want to know.

But whatever.

[Govinda]

I don't really give that much of a shit - my reason for posting quickly was my sheer surprise. And I was annoyed that it just went without reason.

But the reaction to my reaction is getting beyond annoying. Christ. Take a chill pill, man.

[Unknown Entity]

I want rep back. No crappy alternative. Just the rep.

*puts name, address, e-mail, number and other crap down on petition*

Govinda for S-Mod!

I totally agree. In fact, I'm most certain Heather would do fantasticly as an S-Mod. She is half us little people, yet destined to go far... She will save TFF from the mud pools we are stuck in, and lead us on to... greater things.

... I guess I need to work on that...

[Angantyr]

I love telling people to grow a pair and stop being dumb, if people want to cry then maybe they should stop being so dumb and annoying.

[OceanEyes28]

Hey, just to make sure we're all on the page, this thread doesn't need to be a place for people to argue. Toph, come on now, take it easy on this back and forth with people. Darkvivi, can you and Rikkuffx take it to PM or something? Or just stop teasing all together, perhaps.

I was hoping this could be a place for everyone to first get their disappointment out in the open in a civil way, and then it could be a place for talking good ideas or understanding Merlin and Fuzz's decision to work on rep. Yes, Merlin gets a little snarky on occasion (part of his charm, really) but he really does want what's best for the forum. He didn't do it just to make members angry. Haha the political staff would not have appreciate it.

Anyway, I'd really rather not see this thread degenerate into bickering so I'd hope that everyone, members and staff alike, would stop looking for reasons to be frustrated.

[Rikkuffx]

Hey, just to make sure we're all on the page, this thread doesn't need to be a place for people to argue. Toph, come on now, take it easy on this back and forth with people. Darkvivi, can you and Rikkuffx take it to PM or something? Or just stop teasing all together, perhaps.

I was hoping this could be a place for everyone to first get their disappointment out in the open in a civil way, and then it could be a place for talking good ideas or understanding Merlin and Fuzz's decision to work on rep. Yes, Merlin gets a little snarky on occasion (part of his charm, really) but he really does want what's best for the forum. He didn't do it just to make members angry. Haha the political staff would not have appreciate it.

Anyway, I'd really rather not see this thread degenerate into bickering so I'd hope that everyone, members and staff alike, would stop looking for reasons to be frustrated.

i ended up putting vivi on ignore and deleted my response to him geez plus hes the one who started being a jerk

[OceanEyes28]

Okay... but let's try to be helpful in this thread, not call each other jerks.

Moving on.

[Merlin]

Just a suggestion, for those of you who think that reputation abuse is a localized issue, I request you Google Reputation Abuse. It isn't a localized problem. It's a global problem with vBulletin 3, one that Jelsoft has done nothing to solve. Unlike them, I am.

To sum everything up into one neat package and my final thoughts on the matter, I will quote the other topic:

Thanks to those of you who have made suggestions and those who have kept their cool throughout the changes here. It's you guys who inspire me to continue to find new ways to make the forums and the site better.

I have been hard at work overhauling the rep system to make it something that will hopefully appeal to everyone while eliminating most if not all of the issues plaguing the system Jelsoft made. I'm hoping to have it up by this weekend so stay tuned!


As for those of you who have nothing better to do than to beat dead horses and equate me to the second coming of Satan , I have always spoken in 'legalise' when it comes to forum issues. It allows me to handle situations without becoming emotionally involved in them. If you take offense at phrases like 'cheater', I humbly request that you step away from your keyboard, take a breather, and realize that getting mad at the internet really isn't worth it. I know everyone has their bad days and we all wear it on our shoulders sometimes, but try to remember that I am not here to make your visit here at TFF miserable. Far from it. I am doing what I can to make this place great. Sometimes that requires disabling popular features until the problems with them can be fixed. Yeah it sucks, but it's a temporary measure for the better good. Try to remember that when you write your posts in the future and we can all get along better. Thanks guys. I'll create a new topic when the system is ready to go. ^_^

[Tiger Lily]

I'd sign that.

Rep was fun. I admit to abusing it. I admit to using it to flame people. And I've stopped. Not just because rep was taken away. More because I'd realised I was being a complete cow.

I don't really see why we need to take away reputation because people use it to flame or because they were abusing it...

If they flame, there are options. PM or VM the flamer. Ask them, politely, what they did wrong. Or two, click the report button. It's there for a reason. If what a flamer says is that offensive, just alert the staff and they'll take care of it. However, if you take it into your own hands and start a flame war, then really, you're equally responsible. :\

As to 'rep abuse'. So, if a member has two hundred posts and has gotten to level ten with twelve bars, so what? They've got some shiny green dots. Admire them for having the skills in ass-kissery sufficient enough to get up that high. It's not the end of the world if someone has two little bars more than you and five thousand posts less.

Yeah, the forum can function fine without rep. If there are seriously members here only for the rep, that's... laughable, really. But it did add a quirk of originality to the place. It was nice, you know. For everyone who used it to flame, there were ten who used it to compliment and support.

Also: Yes, rep can be used to flame people. But so can VMs. So can posts. Why don't we disable them? Hell, why don't we take the forum offline?

Just my take. *shrugs*



EDIT:: There's talk of "You have no idea of the shit that went on behind the scenes because of rep", or something like it. So if you're talking about flaming, publicise it. Then we won't need to be in the dark. If it caused that much of a problem, I think we should be able to see the sort of comments that were being thrown around. Don't say who made them to whom if it concerns privacy.

Only suggesting.

If it concerns bugs or whatever, ignore the above.

[Victoria]

That's kind of unreasonable. Posts and stuff are easier to clean up. Rep was horrible to moderate.

Also, as been said dozens of times, it wasn't removed JUST because of those political reasons. Seriously. It's broken and was going to be fixed. Just deal with it. >_>;

Edit: Rep was removed for technical reasons. Not political. Flaming and the like = Political. So whatever you lot are thinking of why it was removed, well... that's not quite correct.

Edit 2: Honestly.. I just want all of this unnecessary drama to stop and die. We (and by we, i mean the whole community...) don't need this... I just ask everyone to be patient and let Merlin do his thing to bring out the new system whenever it's ready.

*sigh*

[Tiger Lily]

Ah, right, cleared up. My interpretation of "wasn't political" was "wasn't discussed with all the staff", and "broken" was "abused".

Right. I get it now. Either I'm not bright today or it wasn't very clear. Either way, I've cottoned on.

I still stand by my viewpoint, but if it's going to take a while for trust to build up after the add-on is fixed, that's fine. *shrug* I just hope it does come back in the future. I'd hate to see it gone permanently because of, to some extent, my actions.

[ChloChloAriadne]

To be honest, I think people should just... Get over it a bit. It was fun, but it's not that big a deal and most likely will come back at some point.

[Pete]

A few things.

Who the hell is vivi, and why have I never seen him until today? Maybe I just don't acknowledge his posts, but I'm pretty sure I've never seen him and his high and mighty attitude until the rep problems started.

As for what is political and what is not; the fact that people are getting flamed via rep is NOT political. It's a personal problem amongst members, which really should be solved by the members themselves. Mods aren't babysitters and shouldn't have to go and hold people's hands through every little stupid cry for mommy. Sometimes, all you have to do is BLOCK a person like Rikku did. Thank you Rikku for using common sense, I truly appreciate the fact that at least one other person here has some idea of how to resolve or end a conflict.

If someone's being that much of a pain, and you just don't want to deal with them, **** it, block em. Who cares? Shit, I'm surprised anyone actually sees anything I post, since I've probably offended everyone at one point or another. But hey, what does it matter, it's the internet.

The fact that there are complaints and a desire for it to be restored by the staff, makes it a political issue of sorts. Though, there's really not much that can be said, since in terms of the site, Merlin and Fuzz are more of a God figure, and the mods are something of cops and lawmakers. Until the rep system is fixed, there really is no issue, since it's about something that we really can't do anything about. It's like saying what if we started to re-grow tails? Well, we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

As for now, we might get our rep back if the system can be fixed. I just don't understand how this wasn't expected. You know your mods and admins are gonna get rep because they do shit and solve problems. And because people ass kiss every now and then. It happens.

I just don't see that how in the grand scheme of things, this is really such a huge issue. It's a nice feature, and I mean, it'd be awesome if we could go back to having rep. It is a status symbol, and it's not. Having lots of green bars makes you look all cool and important, but that's not really that telling. The only status symbol that we should have around here, is if I like you or not. That's honestly a much more important sign than if you have more green bars than someone else.

[Andromeda]

Well since Merlin said he is working on bringing it back this thread's point is rather moot now. No need for a petition to bring something back that is now. Now then, let's end the drama and leave it in MSN.

Closing thread.