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Old 2010-03-06, 00:12   Link #13
LynnieS
Senior Member
 
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: China
Quote:
Originally Posted by felix View Post
ps. Lynnie. Are not people more likely to commit suicide (or whatever it was you were implying) when you take away systems to let them cool-off (such as negative reputation, blocklists etc). I mean don't people suicide over petty thoughts like: "the world is unfair and nobody agrees with me"?
Unfortunately, I don't know of a single reason why someone is driven to commit suicide. I also do not know if the rep system can cause it to happen. On-line bullying, esp. by those who can hide their identities freely, can be and is a concern. Not everyone is mature enough to accept criticism with a clear head; not everyone is mature enough to hold off on criticizing someone else's thoughts and opinions beyond what is normally accepted in polite society. Given the age distribution of the forums' members, someone who is in his teens is probably less likely to hold off on responding than someone is his 30's/40's. In terms of liability esp. with popular meeting sites, less risk = better usually.

The rep system is basically and IMHO a toy. I don't take it seriously at all, and all those green marks below someone's avatar, while pretty, are meaningless. OTOH, not everyone thinks the same, and the only person who sees a - rep is the guy who receives it.

If he ignores it, big whoop; it contributes absolutely nothing to the forums.

If he does not ignore it, someone (if he puts down his ID) might get flamed privately, a rather pointless (IMHO) thread gets opened to air the complaint, or it gets reported to the mods. Again, it doesn't contribute much except wasted time and bandwidth. A mod might be able to track down the "drive-by rep'er" and warn/ban him if his statement goes overboard, but the "harm", if you can call it that, is done.

If the rep system is removed, then the criticism is then done either in the thread or via PM/personal board. You attach an ID to the criticism, make it more visible, and force people to take responsibility on his actions.

But that's just my opinion. If the mods want to keep the system, it's their decision. My rep status is "opt'ed out" for ages, and I rarely rep people also (fewer than 10 so far, I think...).
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