What is Rep power

[jamello]

Please folks, forgive my ignorance:$ I am just wondering. what is the meaning or import of the "rep power" rating of all the users of daniweb.com. What are its implications and/or benefits if any.

[happygeek]

It is a visual guide to your reputation. You get points if someone feels your posting has been helpful enough to them to 'add rep' for you. The more important/powerful (in reputation and/or management terms) the person giving the rep is, the more points you get. So an admin giving you rep would be worth more than a newbie member with no postings to their name.

By the same token, you can also get negative reputation points if someone feels strongly that you are being unhelpful, disruptive or giving bad advice.

So it is really just a way of quickly measuring the reputation of the person providing an answer to a question.

[Ancient Dragon]

benefits: none

implications: post stuff that is helpful to others. The more people like what you post, the more of those little green squares you get. The opposite is true also, you can get bad rep too.

[RwCC]

That is if people bother to give the rep in the first place lol

[jamello]

thanks The Daddy! It's crystal clear now.
What again, if i may ask, the meaning of the stars "awarded" to some of you guys. And you know what, The queen has 10 of them!:D. What do I do to earn them.

It is a visual guide to your reputation. You get points if someone feels your posting has been helpful enough to them to 'add rep' for you. The more important/powerful (in reputation and/or management terms) the person giving the rep is, the more points you get. So an admin giving you rep would be worth more than a newbie member with no postings to their name.

By the same token, you can also get negative reputation points if someone feels strongly that you are being unhelpful, disruptive or giving bad advice.

So it is really just a way of quickly measuring the reputation of the person providing an answer to a question.

[jamello]

What is the color of a bad rep. (Good one is a green)

benefits: none

implications: post stuff that is helpful to others. The more people like what you post, the more of those little green squares you get. The opposite is true also, you can get bad rep too.

[jamello]

You know your are right:S . I have had people that were of immense benefit to me and I did not give them reps just because I do not know what to do. I suggest a little info pack for newbies that contains this info. The FAQ sectiion couldn't help in this regard.

That is if people bother to give the rep in the first place lol

[Infarction]

What is the color of a bad rep. (Good one is a green)

Orange. It's usually hard to come by, but I have a knack for it in heated discussions :$

I think you can also sort the member list by rep to see who has the most or least (and yes, there's a couple with negative rep)

What again, if i may ask, the meaning of the stars "awarded" to some of you guys. And you know what, The queen has 10 of them!:D. What do I do to earn them.

Stars are for 1000 posts.

[thekashyap]

Orange. It's usually hard to come by, but I have a knack for it in heated discussions :$

Yeah, me too.. but I'm improving..
I also earned some orange for posting C++ solution to a Java problem.. :$ of course it was unintetional.. :'(

[joshSCH]

You know your are right:S . I have had people that were of immense benefit to me and I did not give them reps just because I do not know what to do. I suggest a little info pack for newbies that contains this info. The FAQ sectiion couldn't help in this regard.

I agree.. If more people knew about 'REP power', then more people would give rep, and therefore the rep system would be more reliable and successful.. I think it would be a great idea to send new members Daniweb rules, including how the 'rep' and posting systems work (If that doesn't happen already).. That would definitely clear up some of their obvious questions.. I know that when I was new I had no clue what rep power was either, and I had to search through the forums to find out exactly what it was.

[christina>you]

Orange. It's usually hard to come by, but I have a knack for it in heated discussions

Orange? I thought they were red.

[Rashakil Fol]

Red is for infractions. All my best posts are orange.

[christina>you]

Red is for infractions. All my best posts are orange.

Oh okay.
Lol

[jbennet]

Each star means 1000 posts btw.

So what does an orange rep mean then? I have quite a few, will i be banned?

[Infarction]

It subtracts from your total rep (CP tell you the sum). Other than that, no biggie AFAICT

[jbennet]

Hmm. It would be cool to see if you had any bad infractions on your record but i dont suppose theres any way to see them...

[Ancient Dragon]

actually there is -- go to your control panel where it shows the rep points you have received. bad rep is also shown there.

[Ancient Dragon]

So what does an orange rep mean then? I have quite a few, will i be banned?

:D No. Only infractions can do that (unless, of course, Ms. Dani does it herself). We all can do that for you if you wish ;)

[jbennet]

um... no thank you, i think ill take a pass on the ban ;).

[joshSCH]

lol

[John A]

I agree.. If more people knew about 'REP power', then more people would give rep, and therefore the rep system would be more reliable and successful.. I think it would be a great idea to send new members Daniweb rules, including how the 'rep' and posting systems work (If that doesn't happen already).. That would definitely clear up some of their obvious questions.. I know that when I was new I had no clue what rep power was either, and I had to search through the forums to find out exactly what it was.

The impact of doing such a thing would be minimal, at best. I'll tell you why: the people who aren't aware of the reputation system are the new people here at DaniWeb. And since they're new members, they usually can't even affect your reputation, or if they can, it's no more than 1 point. I'm sure you can imagine how long it would take you to gain another green rep dot.

No. The real reputation comes from the experienced members who already have plenty of reputation, which in my opinion is better anyway, it shows that you've earned your reputation, and that it didn't all come from your friend (unless of course, your friend is an experienced member).

Furthermore, judging by the number of people who use code tags in the software development section, I'd say that the people who would happen to read a reputation guide would be quite small.

[joshSCH]

The impact of doing such a thing would be minimal, at best. I'll tell you why: the people who aren't aware of the reputation system are the new people here at DaniWeb. And since they're new members, they usually can't even affect your reputation, or if they can, it's no more than 1 point. I'm sure you can imagine how long it would take you to gain another green rep dot.

No. The real reputation comes from the experienced members who already have plenty of reputation, which in my opinion is better anyway, it shows that you've earned your reputation, and that it didn't all come from your friend (unless of course, your friend is an experienced member).

Furthermore, judging by the number of people who use code tags in the software development section, I'd say that the people who would happen to read a reputation guide would be quite small.

Well, it obviously wouldn't have much of an affect at first.. But I think it could help spur the reputation system later on..

Besides, even if it doesn't help the rep system, at least we won't have so many members asking what stars and reputation are all the time.. Personally, I think a message should be sent to all members.. b/c I'm sure there are members who still don't know what stars or rep. are.

Also, I think all newbies should be able to give at least one rep point.. none of this neutral stuff, b/c it defeats the purpose of giving reputation. Besides, many people register on daniweb for one specific question.. And if someone helps out the new member, why shouldn't he/she be rewarded with rep points?

[John A]

Well, it obviously wouldn't have much of an affect at first.. But I think it could help spur the reputation system later on..

I'm generally pretty stingy with my reputation, yet I definitely know what it is. I'm not quite sure how an FAQ guide would help spur on reputation...?

Also, I think all newbies should be able to give at least one rep point.. none of this neutral stuff, b/c it defeats the purpose of giving reputation. Besides, many people register on daniweb for one specific question.. And if someone helps out the new member, why shouldn't he/she be rewarded with rep points?

Probably the largest reason for people with < 5 posts being unable to affect other people's reputation is the fact that otherwise people would be registering multiple accounts with proxies, and then adding reputation to themselves. Using a post count limit makes it much harder to cheat.

[~s.o.s~]

Yes I agree with Joey, allowing new posters to affect reputation wouldn't be such a good thing. The reputaition here is affected by your date of joining, your own rep, the rep of the person you are repping and so on...

[joshSCH]

I'm generally pretty stingy with my reputation, yet I definitely know what it is. I'm not quite sure how an FAQ guide would help spur on reputation...?

Not only an addition to the FAQ guide, but also an e-mail stating how the post and rep. systems work. This way there would be much less confusion..

Probably the largest reason for people with < 5 posts being unable to affect other people's reputation is the fact that otherwise people would be registering multiple accounts with proxies, and then adding reputation to themselves. Using a post count limit makes it much harder to cheat.

Yes I agree with Joey, allowing new posters to affect reputation wouldn't be such a good thing. The reputaition here is affected by your date of joining, your own rep, the rep of the person you are repping and so on...

ah ic... That may be a good thing then.. but it has some drawbacks on the reputation system... If newbies can't give rep, then only the frequent users of daniweb really benefit.. And only from each other. So really, it doesn't matter if you help some1 solve a problem.. Unless the person you help is a frequent daniweb user.

And as for people setting up new accounts and repping themselves.. I don't think that would really have much of an effect on the system. If people can only give rep 10 times a day, then it would take someone forever to actually make a difference in his/her reputation..

Whats more harmful than that is friends who just rep each other. I'll admit.. I'm even guilty of this.. I referred one of my friends who lives a couple houses down from me, and we have repped each other for no reason.. not enough to make much of a change but still.. (I haven't done this in a while though!)

[Infarction]

Another reason it's good for newbies to not give rep is that things would get skewed pretty easily. If you have someone come to Daniweb for the first time and ask a question, then rep the person that answers the question because they think it's the right thing to do, some of the users will get a lot of rep just for answering "use int main instead of void main()" sort of things (bad example, but you get the idea). When regular members give rep, they have a better idea of an outstanding post.

[John A]

Another reason it's good for newbies to not give rep is that things would get skewed pretty easily. If you have someone come to Daniweb for the first time and ask a question, then rep the person that answers the question because they think it's the right thing to do, some of the users will get a lot of rep just for answering "use int main instead of void main()" sort of things (bad example, but you get the idea). When regular members give rep, they have a better idea of an outstanding post.

Or worse, a person gets repped for solving the problem using incorrect coding techniques (eg. using gets() ). I'm pretty happy with reputation the way it is; it's actually pretty easy to get if you post well.

[joshSCH]

ah ok.. I see. Yea, I have no problem with the rep system now, just wondering why it was set up this way.

[Infarction]

Retrospectively, I liked it a whole lot better before people started making a big deal of it a week ago...

[joshSCH]

Retrospectively, I liked it a whole lot better before people started making a big deal of it a week ago...

What do you mean? People were complaining about it? why?