What are 'Reputation Points'?
 

I see that against my name there is now an icon for 'reputation'. By clicking on it, I can see that I have ten reputation points, but I don't know if these are positive or negative. The FAQ says I can see them on my User CP at the bottom, but I don't see anything there. What have I done, and what can I do, to affect my 'reputation'?

Hopefully someone that really knows something about this will be along to explain, but in the meantime I suspect it's related to this. Other general searches on 'vBulletin + reputation' give further but sometimes possibly spurious detail (version differences perhaps, or maybe is a very new feature that's different from before - or I'm a bit useless at searching!).

What I thought may have been spurious I've decided probably isn't. Have a look here, doesn't necessarily mean it's what is/will be implemented here but time will tell I guess. Hopefully there's a way to utilise this practically for reading purposes as per Slashdot or SoylentNews that use slash code? In any event well done admins!

Yet another edit - I should have thought to look here!

Out of interest I saw that link included 'vb3' as part of the URL, which led me to go looking at available vBulletin versions. From what I see the latest version is 6 .. not being especially familiar with vBulletin, and without being able to find the detail anywhere, it's not clear what version PPRuNe uses?

FP.

I wonder if the mods are trying out some functionality of the forum software to see if it's useful. This could be to do with the conversation in the https://www.pprune.org/accidents-clo...t-threads.html thread, where many posters are saying that it would be useful if they were able to vote up (or down) different posters' content or credibility.

Or could be completely unrelated to that at all... :hmm:

If someone said to me it's been there for years and I was a right plonker for not noticing it I'd not be surprised...

As far as I can tell, everyone has a green reputation flag against their name which if you hover over it brings up '<username> has an unscathed reputation on PPRuNe ... as yet'. I wonder what point, if any, this feature serves.

The dreaded reputation points system is an option that most forum owners choose not to use since it can be very badly abused. The most recent incarnation of vB....Xenforo....does have the ability to notice abuse on the reputation system, vB does not.

There are preset levels of naughty (ie breaking rules, bad language etc ), the more times you get naughty reputation, the closer you tend to be suspended, if you continue to be naughty you get a specific length ban (often 24 to 48 hours depending on the site owner)....if after that ban you continue to be naughty, you get a full and permanent ban. You can set it to moderators and admins only able to apply the naughty points....however....

The problem is if someone (ie a normal member) does not like you, they can apply naughty points if the system allows them to do so....personality clashes, argumentative behaviour type thing.

Most sites do not use it due to it being contentious and exceptionally easy to abuse (when admin/builder of forums using both vB and Xenforo I always disabled the function....adds to moderators workload too much since they have to deal with the abusive aspects, namely members complaints of personal attack by other member(s) by virtue of the attacking member disliking them personally rather than for the content of the posts.

It is not a popular add on function for moderators or admin....and anyone who is singled out for naughty rep bullying.