[NightWish]

Originally Posted by Vexx

...to my understanding there's no way to turn off only negative rep

As mentioned there there is a user-group setting for that. I'll put a complete list for reference; so people don't need to keep guessing at what can and cannot be changed...

The user-group settings are all yes/no:

• See Who Left User Ratings
• Use Reputation
• Hide Reputation from Others¹
• Leave Negative Reputation

All other settings apply to the system in general:

• Enable/disable the reputation system (enabled, obviously)
• New user default reputation (10 points)
• Undefined Reputation Title ("is off the scale")
• Number of reputation ratings to display (5, on your User CP)
• Administrator's reputation power (disabled, we follow the same rules as everyone else)
• Reputation power factors: Register Date, Post Count, Reputation Point
  Note: Values will not be published
• Minimums: Post Count, Reputation Count
  Note: Values will not be published
• Limits: Daily Reputation Clicks, User Spread, Frequency
  Note: Values will not be published

Remember though, just because there is a setting, doesn't mean we will change it.

While I have any power to guide/veto changes to the forum, the "See Who Left User Ratings" setting will not be changed independently. That is, not without a bigger change to the reputation system and user's current awards/points. It was disabled to prevent conflicts (I still think this was the right policy and given my, albeit privileged, view of the system, the "evidence" bears this out). Regardless of the correctness of the choice, anyone using the system did so with the presumption of anonymity. If the setting is changed now, existing reputation awards would have to be removed to preserve this.

The problem with disabling "Negative Reputation" was originally thought to be the unconstrained growth of reputation, which I think was already mentioned. As it turns out, I'm not convinced the evidence supports this argument however, with some people's rep almost being off the scale. It has been noted that there is very little chance for newer users to ever catch them up. There are also other good motives for keeping it (given the current system's point-awarding inflexibility), for constructive criticism/comment. Again, however, there is scant evidence to support this actually being the way it is used (it is but not that often).

The later issue may be served by other aspects of the forum (we have visitor messages now, which we didn't have before). There are various ways we've considered of countering former (unconstrained point growth), some have been mentioned in this thread. One approach raised in private was the possibility of resetting or truncating reputation if any change is made, or limiting the apparent reputation to only the last year's worth of points (i.e. you need to keep getting rep to maintain the level).

I wonder, how would people feel about having their reputation wiped or drastically reduced, if there were a change to the system?

Originally Posted by felix

Pretty sure that's something NightWish did.

No, the only changes I made were to alter the way the forum applied limitations to reputation awarding, because the original system was even more broken than the current one.

Originally Posted by felix

I could try making a plug-in, unless NightWish already created the code.

Well... in response to the debate I have looked at alternatives, other possible mechanics. I settled on one that involves a 1 for 1 exchange (you give rep from your own jar, to use the cookies analogy). The interface is then changed to allow you to say how many you give, if any. You must always comment, but don't need to actually give a cookie. No negatives; the system is self limiting because the number of cookies only grows with new users, if you want to just leave a criticism, you can. Hidden rep is actually disabled¹ rather than just hidden. There are some other details, but I've only hacked a prototype mod so far. I've not "play-tested" the mechanics or discussed the details with the other staff yet, so don't hold your breath.
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1 - The current setting is hide not disable. Currently people can still give you rep, you just can't see it on your User CP and other people see: