Abusing the reputation system - and a warning.

Hi All,

Whether you like it or not, your rep level on BHW is a sign of how trustworthy and knowledgeable you are. Compared to a lot of forums, the reputation system is actually very good. The longer you are here and the more you contribute, the more rep power you have. This, however, can lead to problems...

Whilst the system is generally a good indication of contributions to BHW, it is not foolproof. If you are new to BHW, do NOT automatically trust someone because they have rep.

After doing some "research" the other day, it came to my attention that there are a number of members with a very high reputation level, but little to no justification for that (in terms of shares and contributions). It also came to my attention that there are a group of you who mutually rep each other and game the system. You know who you are... and we know who you are

To all of those who rep people for no reason and hope to get rep back in return: STOP. Mods can see a history of rep and it's quite obvious who's been up to no good. Keep it up, and you'll get banned.

To all those who blindly trust people with high rep: be careful. It is a good system, but it can also be gamed by unscrupulous members.

Let's all play fair and continue to keep BHW as the best marketing forum out there.

Thanks!

I like this... I have noticed some shady users with some outrageous rep. Thank ... And dare I say +rep?

This should be pinned.

We'll be keeping a close eye on this in the coming weeks/months - sticking this warning for now.

Thanks for that helpful and useful information meathead , +rep given hah :tee:

Glad this is being looked into - it annoys me to no end how some of us work very hard to contribute and yet you see people with 4x the rep who have done nothing

good point! thanks @mods

who the fuck cares about their forum rep? need to get a hobby...

Have you guys thought about removing the ability to give rep in the lounge? Sort of like how posts in the lounge don't count toward post count? Not sure if it's possible but I think it would correct a lot of the problem of people with high rep for doing nothing useful at all.

LBrown said:

Have you guys thought about removing the ability to give rep in the lounge? Sort of like how posts in the lounge don't count toward post count? Not sure if it's possible but I think it would correct a lot of the problem of people with high rep for doing nothing useful at all.

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I'm not sure if this is possible so I would have to ask.

The thing to note here is that the problem is a GROUP of members repping each other in a "circle". So I'm not sure if removing the ability to give rep in the lounge would solve this issue.

Hopefully, however, this post will be a warning to those who are doing it to stop. Repping the same person 17 times in 2 months (yes, one person has done this) is clearly ridiculous and we're on to you

meathead1234 said:

Repping the same person 17 times in 2 months (yes, one person has done this) is clearly ridiculous and we're on to you

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Damn, that's pretty excessive. I'll admit, I rep people a lot. I think it helps motivate people to post better quality content. I think maybe if there were a lesser amount of being able to rep a day that might help. Also, what if you were only able to rep someone once a month? I'm not sure how the VBulletin rep system goes. Those are the only things I can think of that might help.

I give this thread a WinScore of 93%.

I think it should be clarified what you as mods would consider a situation worthy of a + reputation. If I have a 4 hour conversation with someone that started because they saw my post about how I disagree with the majority of the world, and they posted something as simple as "I agree!", then I would consider that as a reason to add to their reputation because of them voicing how they felt as well.

If someone earns my trust, or shares a lot of the same values as me, then I may go browse through all of their recent posts and look for something that I feel was worthy of a +rep. I get limited automatically by the forum every day for spreading reputation too quickly, but I am spreading it to people who I genuinely think deserve a higher reputation on the forum for their posts.

We have relationships that start because of a simple post, and blossom outside of BHW, but ultimately we feel they deserve the reputation they get. The button says, "Add to Kickflip's Reputation" when you hover over it, so if that is what someone wants to do, they should be allowed to. They are THEN asked "What do you think of Kickflip's post?" Sometimes we will add a little inside joke or something.

Yes, 17 times in 2 months is extremely excessive. But to be honest, I do not keep track of people who I give +rep to. It could have been me, and I honestly wouldn't know. If a post or someone stands out to me, I will give them a +rep.

I will continue to rep as I see fit, and would invite the mods to continue to watch my account if they please, as I obviously know there are many members on BHW who dislike me and don't like seeing my rep so high, but I truly love being a BHW member, and I feel like I know how to use my "power" responsibly so I have nothing to hide.

Good step making BHW more clean. Also some people asking REP and thanks in there thread after there contribution, hope its not allowed now. It would be good if mod's warn them or ask them to remove that on the same thread so that others can know that's not allowed.

I say remove the reps that are not deserved ... i.e "spreading some reps"

Good point man, +rep!
(Don't forget mine in return )

bdtyrone said:

This should be pinned.

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says the guy asking for thanks in his sig... lol

Kickflip said:

I will continue to rep as I see fit, and would invite the mods to continue to watch my account if they please, as I obviously know there are many members on BHW who dislike me and don't like seeing my rep so high, but I truly love being a BHW member, and I feel like I know how to use my "power" responsibly so I have nothing to hide.

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Thanks for your input.

I'm not going to name names. That was not the purpose of the thread. No-one has been banned and hopefully it won't come to that.

It was just a warning for those who mutually rep each other as a group. Obviously, once or twice a month is fine, but literally repping someone every other post is a little excessive. I would sometimes rep someone for an "in joke" or based on a conversation we've had on Skype, but certainly not that much. It should be used when you feel a contribution deserves more than a "thanks".

Well, isn't that a black hat method to get rep? haha

tharako said:

Well, isn't that a black hat method to get rep? haha

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Yep, but bear in mind the mods are blackhatter's too... and are probably smarter than most people like to think... so it's not going to work for long before we catch you