(04-22-2015, 03:22 PM)FreelanceWizard Wrote:(04-22-2015, 03:10 PM)Verad Wrote: As part of that catharsis, I'm rewarded for it by the structure of the board. My reputation is very high given my post-count. If you were to click through that reputation and examine it, you would find that most of those boosts come directly in response to a hostile comment. That could be because it's witty, it says something that people agree with, or because they just like me and want me to post more in general, I don't know. But the hostility is what gets me points. Tiny little ego-boosts to surprise and brighten my day. Somebody likes it when I'm a shithead far more than when I'm constructive or writing IC fiction, and I don't think I'm the only person for which that's true.
To be clear, I am not excusing my hostility as the fault of the reputation system, nor am I excusing anybody else's for the same. Reputation facilitates and rewards, but I would be hostile without it - though probably to a lesser extent.
This is an interesting point. I've had a couple of people suggest to me that the reputation system is not having the desired effect (which is to say, giving bennies to good users) but is instead incentivizing bad behavior as you described. I wonder if the reputation system is, at this point, perhaps causing more harm than good by creating a perception that some people are better than others. Would it better to hide reputation from other users? Remove it entirely?
I would say probably hide the number away in the first go. Some others have commented already that it would reduce the boastability which can have some negative consequences.Â
Another thing to consider:Â
Making writing a comment mandatory - So people have to say why they do it. It might spark people hold back on their +1's a bit and honestly, I'd prefer receiving one with a reason than an empty one. It's more constructive that way. It would also help with the next thing I would suggest, and that is to monitor abuse of the function (eg if someone is +1'ing everything a specific person says regardless of what it is)
