Bad reputation

[Suzagna]

Yesterday I took part in a thread and as a result I have now a bad reputation. I participate in this forum regularly because I find it informative and amusing and I never aimed to be “someone” here, so up to now I was perfectly happy with my grey mark in the reputation icon. When I saw my TWO red marks yesterday (“Suzagna has annoyed a few people around here”) I was curious to see which users had given me the bad reputation. When I checked my profile I got three surprises:

1) My new reputation comes from ONE single user.
2) This user didn’t participated in the thread.
3) The reasons for giving me this reputation do not coincide with the ones described in the gidelines on when to give reputation

Regarding 1:

How is it possible that one user has the right to let me be seen as someone who “has annoyed a few people around here”? A few is more than one, I have read that the administrators can give certain people “reputation power”, but no user should have the power to give a reputation that it’s described as result of “a few”.

Regarding 2:

How can a user that has not participated in a thread with more than 300 posts consider that I deserve this reputation? Has he/she read all the posts and then considered that I am the one who does not “go with the flow”? I haven’t read all the posts in the thread myself, somebody has?

Regarding 3:

I haven’t been unpolite or rude in my posts and half of them refer to things that other participants said. The user who gave me bad reputation justifies his/her action by saying more or less that my “style” is not suitable. According to the gidelines for reputation:

“Try to be objective. Give them negative reputation if they overstepped some imaginary line of common sense or decency, or if they seem to be posting but adding little real value. Use judgement and common sense - you should know a poster that deserves negative reputation when you see them”

I don’t match this profile. I always try to be helpful and give useful information to others. On the other hand this user has a very good reputation but I have read a couple of posts from him/ her being very rough with the OP and he/she does not lack groans. Me, instead, I cannot give either positive or negative reputation to anyone. Why? When is a member allowed to give or take reputation? Now I start to understand something that already striked me before: people with a lot of thanks and very few groans and who are obviously helpful to the community being marked red.

With some luck, the user to just gave me bad reputation will do that again in the future (after having given reputation to some other 5 members in the meantime according to the rule) and then you have the situation when one single member gives another member the reputation “considered unworthy”. This description should mean that half of the forum is against this person, and it should not be possible for one single member or even for two to apply this level of reputation. As it is now, the reputation function is just misleading.

[kevlegs]

Just tried to offset it by giving you a thx

Wow he was having a real groan'fest. Take solace in the fact he is serving a ban now

[sharkey]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Some of the folks on here get a little over agitated, especially on the particular topic you were referring to.

[lost_inbroad]

	Quote:	sharkey
	I wouldn't worry about it too much. Some of the folks on here get a little over agitated, especially on the particular topic you were referring to.

What was the topic again?

[i-b-deborah]

And anyway, whilst we are on the subject, YOU groaned ME!

[möpp]

When my husband and I travelled through Yemen years ago (just after the first Gulf war), we were given the advice NOT to discuss either politics or religion. I'm sticking to that advice on EF

[lost_inbroad]

	Quote:	i-b-deborah
	And anyway, whilst we are on the subject, YOU groaned ME!

me? (this short too message)

[i-b-deborah]

Oh yes, it's all about you innit

[Nickers]

	Quote:	Suzagna
	I have read that the administrators can give certain people “reputation power”, but no user should have the power to give a reputation that it’s described as result of “a few”.

Admin and mods can not give anyone special rep giving power, the rep points people can give is based on the amount of rep they themselves have received - I don't know where you read this, can you point us to this information so we can adjust and amend it?

[sharkey]

	Quote:	lost_inbroad
	What was the topic again?

Something about Soccer/Basketball/American Football/[Other Girlyman Sports].

[lost_inbroad]

	Quote:	sharkey
	Something about Soccer/Basketball/American Football/[Other Girlyman Sports].

...lol, I see....and I thought it was about something detremental, such as brown sugar.

[giff]

	Quote:	Suzagna
	1) My new reputation comes from ONE single user.

Same here .

[Nickers]

	Quote:	giff
	Same here .

no yours comes from two

[Nil]

Don't worry sweetheart,

I got a red blob (8 points down) by someone here who thinks he fart upper the hole and feel the need to moralized everyone in here.

I got also a red blob from someone who didn't understand my comments on a subject and instead to ask clarification gave me red blob (and I was actually saying something he agrees on) and told me to get over it me the attention seeker....

Some people have just a pity life!

[LeMenuisier]

Hmmm, this is interesting. I'm new here and did notice the thank you's and groans in the profile bar. At first I figured this was something people edited themselves as some inside joke ("see how many groan's I've got?!") but I understand it's an actual serious tool somehow?
Need to look that up, does anyone know where to find the rules to that?

Not that I worry because I'm trying to aply the 'no politics' rule as much as I can. Especially when not talking face to face words are easily twisted out of shape by the reciever.

I'm sorry for your first groan's btw.

Bob.

[giff]

	Quote:	Nicky
	no yours comes from two

How do I find them, actually? Thanks.

[LeMenuisier]

O, wow, I've just noticed I have been thanked!

Bob.

[kevlegs]

	Quote:	giff
	Same here .

click "my settings" tab

[lost_inbroad]

	Quote:	kevlegs
	click "my settings" tab

...nothing happened.

[MathNut]

Hi Suzagna,

1) Those mouseover comments shouldn't be taken too literally. (I mean, "reputation beyond repute"? Not likely!) I've received red blobs before, and green ones, and even a few ghostly grey ones. Stick around and you will too. In fact it looks* like you already have. Some very well-respected posters have been from green to red and back again so don't sweat it. Take the comment on board, figure out if the person's just being a grump or if there really is something you could improve, and move on.

2) You'll be pleased to note that the person who neg-repped you* is participating in the thread after all. It's not a requirement though. I've handed out plenty of rep (good and bad) on discussions I'm not otherwise involved in. Where I am involved, I've handed out green rep to people I disagree with - but who are arguing well and promoting good discussion on the forum - and I've given out bad rep to people who are arguing the same position as me but being idiots about it.

3) Mods don't comment so no comment on whether the rep was justified or not. Tit-for-tat rep is against the rules, but that doesn't seem* to be what happened here.

Incidentally, reading the whole thread is a good idea. Even if it's long. You may find that the post you're responding to is only a small piece of someone's argument, and that your response to the same post would be somewhat different taking it in context.

4) Keep posting.

Cheers,
MathNut

*source: the All-Seeing Eye of Mod