Reputation feature of the forum

The forum software used on the LDSTech site has a Reputation feature that members can use to indicate their approval or disapproval of posts made by others. Forum users may find it helpful to learn how this Reputation feature works.

At the bottom of each post is a set of icons that look like this:
If you hover your mouse over the second one (that looks like the classic image of a set of balancing scales) you will see that it is designed to "Add to <username>'s Reputation".

Any user of the forum can click on that and either approve or disapprove of the post. They can also leave a brief, anonymous comment, either praising a post they consider particularly helpful, or criticizing a post they disapprove of.

The net result of all these approvals and disapprovals affects the color of the little colored square by every user's name, location, and post count. If you hover over the colored square, you may see any of the following:
Everyone on the forum can see the colored square and the little description that corresponds to each user's Reputation balance. This is simply a reflection of the aggregate community's opinion of a particular user: green for positive, blue for neutral, red for negative. However, the specific Reputation comments can only be seen by the user they apply to, and forum administrators (even moderators cannot see them). Each user can see the Reputation comments they have been given by clicking on the "User CP" (for "User Control Panel") link on the menu of each page. The comments will contain a link to the associated post.

All forum members are welcome to use the Reputation feature. Remember that your comments will be visible to the person whose post you commented on (but no one else except administrators). As with everything you do on the forum, Reputation comments should follow the Code of Conduct.

Thanks for information. I think I'll use it only for disapproval (if the case) because, in the binary world, NOT disapproval means approval.

marianomarini_vi wrote:in the binary world, NOT disapproval means approval.

Does not apply in this case. It's more like tri-state logic.

"However, the specific Reputation comments can only be seen by the user they apply to, and forum administrators (even moderators cannot see them). Each user can see the Reputation comments they have been given by clicking on the "User CP" (for "User Control Panel") link on the menu of each page. The comments will contain a link to the associated post."

Perhaps that is true at the moment, but someone has deleted comments so while the reputation color is negative, the comments posted are positive. No explanation. They're just gone, but the aggregate is not. And one time the thread vanished so I could not tell what specific remark the post linked to.

scion wrote:"However, the specific Reputation comments can only be seen by the user they apply to, and forum administrators (even moderators cannot see them). Each user can see the Reputation comments they have been given by clicking on the "User CP" (for "User Control Panel") link on the menu of each page. The comments will contain a link to the associated post."

Perhaps that is true at the moment, but someone has deleted comments so while the reputation color is negative, the comments posted are positive. No explanation. They're just gone, but the aggregate is not. And one time the thread vanished so I could not tell what specific remark the post linked to.

Leaving a comment is completely optional. A user can decide to give negative or positive reputation without any comment, if that is what they desire.

In most cases, I would think leaving a comment would be best so the poster can get a sense of feedback from the Community about their statements.

That is not the case. Nothing negative is there. Period. No links. Nothing. But the square is red. No way to know what someone was responding to because there is no link to a thread at all.

scion wrote:That is not the case. Nothing negative is there. Period. No links. Nothing. But the square is red. No way to know what someone was responding to because there is no link to a thread at all.

The process, as with life, is not perfect. Fortunately, no one can see what you are talking about.

Totally by accident, I ran across a comment given to me quite some time ago. I was surprised at what was said, but I have no way to respond to its inaccuracies, because I have no idea who wrote it.

So, since I can't do much else with it, I have just ignored it.

(Oh, I suppose I could frame it on the wall for everyone to see. What good would that do, though? I would have to leave the glass out of the frame, or the darts would just bounce off of it.) [grin]

Well, we can't say much more than state the reality that no one has much control over their own reputation (same thing in real life, and the very definition of reputation). It is quite literally in the hands of the rest of the Community.

As for any hiccups in the system or if you think there is abuse of the technology going on, Tom, RussellHltn, or I can certainly attempt to investigate the situation. It would be best if we were contacted privately via PM or email instead of in the public forums. Also, our ability to investigate could be limited, as there isn't very much history left in the system for Reputation in our Admin Control Panel.

"The comments will contain a link to the associated post."

No. There is *no link*. I don't know how to say this more clearly. It is being sidestepped in the responses below.

scion wrote:"The comments will contain a link to the associated post."

No. There is *no link*. I don't know how to say this more clearly. It is being sidestepped in the responses below.

It would be more accurate to say "The comments will contain a link to the associated post, if the post is still available." If the post which was given reputation comments has been deleted (by the user) or moved from public view (by an administrator or moderator), then you will not see a link to the associated post.

In the case of disapproving comments, it may well be the case that precisely those posts which receive negative comments from the community are those which the forum administrators decide should be removed from public view (see Tom Welch's recent post on the Code of Conduct for clarification of this process). So this may well explain why you are not seeing links to posts for negative comments.

scion wrote:Perhaps that is true at the moment, but someone has deleted comments so while the reputation color is negative, the comments posted are positive. No explanation. They're just gone, but the aggregate is not. And one time the thread vanished so I could not tell what specific remark the post linked to.

The above may well explain why it appears that comments have been deleted. That would be a perfectly logical conclusion to reach when the comments disappear, but it may simply be that the associated posts have been removed from sight, and the forum software then removes the comments from your view because there is no post to link to.

The reputation system doesn't seem to lend itself to transparency. To start with, you only see the latest comments, while the points are an "all time" running total. While you can see your own total points, you can't see the number of points being assessed (or subtracted) for each line. That depends on the "reputation power" of the person leaving the comment. That can range from 0 to 10. I tried looking in the vBulletin software documentation, but it didn't provide much detail.

Alan Brown & Russell Hilton: That explains what is probably happening. It's like having 2 sets of books where the detail (i.e.: fixed asset schedule) is materially less than the total (i.e.: general ledger) with no reason provided . . . until now. This drives the accountant in me absolutely nuts!