Finally getting around to responding...
On the reputation system being retired. I think it's kind of a pity, though it doesn't really impact me personally much. It was nice seeing my reputation slowly creep up, but it being gone won't change the way I post.
Quote:
Originally Posted by relentlessflame
The problem that I have with a "thanks" system (that a few have mentioned) is that it seems to me to just encourage cliques and taking sides. Like let's say you're having a debate about a controversial anime (would totally never happen, I know...). I can just see someone making a "pro" post and having the usual crowd of "pro" supporters like/"thank" their post, and then someone else make an "anti" post and having the usual crowd of "anti" supporters like/"thank" their post. It's like an odd way of giving weight to someone else's argument, and it doesn't really have any correlation whatsoever to whether someone actually did something praiseworthy. It just means, "I agree with you and I want to take a stand".
In the end, I think you'd just be trading one problem for another.
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I do not think a "thanks" system of some sort would be a problem. Sure there would be debates where it would end up meaning "I agree with you and I want to take a stand". That's not a problem, it's pretty much the equivalent of standing there nodding your head. People can do that by making a short post. Which would just clutter things, or draw them into the argument since they're now speaking up and have a post than can be quoted instead of just standing there nodding their head. I've never seen a post being thanked serve as fuel for an argument.
Really, what it comes down to is what do you want out of some sort of approval/disapproval system?
Disapproval options are inevitably going to be abused. I don't think I've ever not seen them abused somehow. Yeah, they can be useful for helping to ID trolls, but the abuse renders it more or less useless. I'm sure I don't need to get into ways disapproval/down voting/negative repping can be absued. That leaves pretty much just the approval half of the system.
Do you want a lightweight means of providing positive feedback out of it? A like/thank system would be a quick and easy means of letting someone know that you agreed with/appreciated/found their post helpful. Posters know when they're appreciated, and that's the end of it. It'd be pretty easy to track how many times they got liked/thanked if you want to use that as a basis for something else.
Do you want a means of identifying those who actively contribute more to the forum? You'd retain the positive aspects of the system, wherein people that post constructively, post fanfics, fan art, avatars, sigs, etc, see their reputation go up from people's feedback. Yeah, you'd get cases where it was more a matter of a popular poster getting a bunch of rep, or people finding ways to abuse the system to get rep, but personally I don't consider it that big a deal.
Do you want it as a means of identifying troll, flamers, and other unhelpful posters? You're probably not going to get this one. As said before, a disapproval side of the system would just be abused. In theory, their reputation wouldn't rise as fast as constructive and helpful posters. In practice, some posters won't have their reputation rise quickly regardless of what they post, even if nothing is wrong with it. Furthermore trolls would be the group most inclined to abuse ways to raise their reputation. You could somewhat offset this by having moderations for trolling or flaming reduce reputation, but it's an imperfect solution for the desired goal.
Overall I'd say the best option is "lightweight means of providing positive feedback". I've found like/thanks systems nice on other forums for the reasons I listed, and is probably one of the better means of letting someone know their post is appreciated without cluttering things up.