New Reputation Levels!

[A Joe in the Bush]

Chaos is still a geotarch at 1599, and Swimmingly is a Tarachin Superstar at 1975

[A Joe in the Bush]

That's weird. Swimmingly is still a Tarachin Superstar at 2000.

 

Sorry for the doublt post.

[Delightful]

It looks like Swimmingly is soon going to catch up to Peter. And probably eventually Brandon. I'm really not sure how I feel about this.

[Aether he/him]

It looks like Swimmingly is soon going to catch up to Peter. And probably eventually Brandon. I'm really not sure how I feel about this.

I must admit that I am somewhat annoyed by it. I find Swimmingly to be hysterically funny quite often, and he does create interesting Threads/posts from time to time, but overall (and correct me if I am wrong), it is the sheer number of snarky/somewhat funny posts that makes up most of his Reputation Points. While there is definitely room for every flavour of contributors/posts on this forum, I feel like users such as Kurkistan (for his in-depth discussions and incessant WoB tracking), Awesomeness Summoned (User Profile Icons) and FeatherWriter (honestly, just the crazy Renarin essays would do) would be more deserving of the top position(s).

[Swimmingly he/him]

I feel guilty now, Aether. Let's just admit that the rep system is flawed, and put it down to human nature, OK? The best way to give these actual contributors to the community accolades is to make posts like this laying down their accomplishments as a separate thing from the rep. Rep is nice, but I'm aware that I'm not as detailed as Kurk or artistic as Awesomeness. In the end, I'll be the first to acknowledge them as the real driving forces here.

Basically, I make a lot of cheap jokes. People like cheap jokes. It's as simple as that. The rep system just isn't perfect. I don't think that I abuse it in any way - but I also think that it's better to use it for some friendly jostling and an occasional laugh than take it as an accurate reputation represention.

Also, if you find my humour distasteful, please downvote. I'd rather walk away with a bruised pride and a pruned sense of humour than a smouldering set of overly polite non-downvoters glaring at their screens.

Thanks.

*backs slowly away from mic*

[A Joe in the Bush]

Kobold King's just Like swimmingly, and he holds Position Number 4

 

And when is the Stopping point for Tarachin Superstar? 2015 at the moment.

Edited July 6, 2014 by The Only Joe

[Tempus]

Aether, as a developer, people like Swimmingly are totally necessary for the health of a site (or game). Certainly for a site that encourages content contribution (like this one!) thrives on the quality of that content. People might be tempted to say then 'If your post isn't a nice high quality post, then don't bother'.

 

The truth is, though, that user retention is based more on interaction and feedback than any other factor. When a person makes a post, writes a theory, or asks a question, the most likely reason to cause them to leave is because they get no reaction at all. Likewise, the biggest motivator for people to keep making posts exactly like they've always done are positive reactions. 

 

Swimmingly has made an astounding 2800 posts in about 10 months. That means in just that time period, he's responsible for 2% of all posts over the entire 3.5-4 years this site has been around. I'm willing to bet that means Swimmingly is pretty much directly responsible for the engagement and retention of a good chunk of the site's thousand or so current active users.

 

So does he deserve rep for making jokes, responding to tons of posts, and generally helping everybody feel good about being here? He totally does.

[Kobold King he/him]

Good points. I'm not sure I'm qualified to weigh in on the finer points of the rep system--I am, as Only Joe astutely pointed out, at Position Number 4, but this is entirely due to my constant and obnoxious stream of cheap laughs, puns, and flavorful faction speeches.

 

The, shall we say, imperfections in the rep system could perhaps be solved when the admins finally institute awards. That way the site could highlight the contributions of those who actually benefit the site in some way in a way which does not involve reputation points. Rep is unfairly weighted towards those who spend time on RP boards or make hilarious cheap jokes all the time.

 

And I'm with Aether 100%--Swimmingly is one of the more charming, recognizable accounts on the board. It's brilliant seeing him pop up on various threads lending his unique, hysterical, and sometimes darkly humorous opinion to the matter at hand. And unlike me, he actually seems to possess the intellect to make thought-provoking theory topics on occasion.

[Swimmingly he/him]

AW, shucks, Kobold. Thanks.

[Kurkistan he/him]

This all takes me back to when Swimmingly was still "gnimhey" and made the fatal mistake of asking me about TIME BUBBLES!!!! as his second post.

[GreyPilgrim he/him]

Warning: This is kind of a rant, a stream of consciousness.

Reputation points have always fascinated me on this site, and frankly have annoyed me from time to time. On one hand, they are a great way to tell someone that a post is thoughtful or high-quality without having to make a post to say so. They also are a great way to tell how well-liked a poster is by the community. On the other hand, however, I fear they are somewhat misused now, handed out for the wrong reasons on occasion. Users like Swimmingly and Kobold certainly contribute something valuable to the community, and I agree with all that has been said about them in the past several posts. Frankly, the site has just changed drastically in the types of discussion made in the past several months. When I joined a little less than a year ago, the discussion was still mostly serious. There were also only about half of the current members (about 3500 of the current ~6000). Since then, the site's usage has increased drastically. This has brought with it an evolution of the site's demographics. There is now a more even mix of serious and silly people with their own distinct skills and traits. There has been a huge expansion of use of the RP and Social Groups sections with the introduction of Sanderson Elimination at the beginning of the year and the burst of factions created a couple months ago. There is also the WoR discussion board. People have sort of fallen into their respective niches on the site. There as some members who post nearly exclusively in the WoR board or in Sanderson Elimination or Social Groups. With this has come a different usage of rep points. All three of those boards are huge sources of rep. But these tend to be given to the sillier posts, especially in the Social Groups board. The same happens in General Discussion boards. The recent burst of membership has resulted in a lot of people making far more posts than in the past, mostly because there are more posts to respond to. That means there is a larger pool of posts to provide reputation for people. Somewhat sadly, I will often read through the silly threads, and every post seems to have at least 3 points, even if (pardon me) they are not that funny. Then I will read through a serious thread, a really great discussion, and there might be a few posts with an up vote or two, even though they are very well thought-out and thought-provoking. I don't know. I just find it somewhat sad.

In all truth, I don't give out much rep; I'm not being stingy (at least not anymore; I was sort of competitive at first, but I have moved past that), I simply save the rep for the posts that show true wit or value. I am not reprimanding you if you are someone who maxes out your rep pool every day, I am just saying that I personally believe that rep should be saved for posts that clearly required significant time or thought or that do express true wit or humor.

And another gripe I have that others have expressed before, please don't upvote posts that just quote another and say "This is a great post" or something like that; those posts are basically rep points put into words. No reason to upvote an upvote, you know? Unless, of course, that post has its own individual value.

As and example of rep use, feel free to upvote this post if you wish. But I most likely would not upvote this as it is basically a stream of consciousness, that didn't require much thought on my part. Honestly, I kind of just stated a lot of random observations that I know you all know as well. I'm even questioning whether to post this or not, as I'm not sure it will really contribute to the discussion in a valuable. But alas I shall post anyway.

[Argent he/him]

This all takes me back to when Swimmingly was still "gnimhey" and made the fatal mistake of asking me about TIME BUBBLES!!!! as his second post.

 

I ignore this thread for two weeks, and when I come back, what do I see - Kurk talking about time bubbles. Figures...

[Left he/him]

Is it just me, or when you reach the Spikeacrocy the amount of upvotes you get seems to increase dramatically. I noticed it with other people and since I've joined I've noticed that it happens with me too. Is there some crazy conspiracy, or do the top fifty just waste too much time on here........

[Kobold King he/him]

Is it just me, or when you reach the Spikeacrocy the amount of upvotes you get seems to increase dramatically. I noticed it with other people and since I've joined I've noticed that it happens with me too. Is there some crazy conspiracy, or do the top fifty just waste too much time on here........

 

* cough *

 

* Kobold King hasn't gotten anything decent accomplished in the months he's been on this site *

 

* cough *

[GreyPilgrim he/him]

I agree with your observation, Leftinch. Newer users tend not to get upvoted nearly as much as the more experienced. There is definitely a point at which people seem to get almost and automatic upvote for every post. This is also a sort of misuse, IMHO. An upvote should be based only on the value of an individual post, not the reputation of the poster. Of course, those who have a lot of upvotes are also those who tend to make a lot of posts that people will upvote.

[Tempus]

People are naturally wired to respond well to things they recognize. If someone sees a post by someone they recognize, they will naturally consider it higher than a post by an unknown, even if they don't have a good opinion of the person they do know. There... isn't much you can do about this - new users all face the same hurdle, and it's simple to overcome. Just make more posts!

[Left he/him]

And have intro threads. It gives you a nice boost to twenty if you stay active on it. I skipped this step which gave me a slow start. Whenever I see people who have both a low post count and a low rep I go ahead and give them an upvote or two to help them along and encourage them to stay active.

[Kobold King he/him]

I tend to be very free with my upvotes, to the point where most days I use up my quota. I upvote posts I find funny, posts I agree with, well-written posts I disagree with, and a lot of the time I upvote really old posts when I read through long-dead threads. Basically, if I am pleased in some way with the presence of a post, I give an upvote.

 

I don't think this is reputation abuse. Upvotes are a way of encouraging other members. A way of giving a thumbs up; a way of saying "Great job mate, keep on posting." They are a kindness to bestow and a genuine pleasure to receive. Why not pass them around the forum? 

[GreyPilgrim he/him]

I don't think being free with upvotes is abuse of the system. If that is what my post above conveyed, then I miswrote and am sorry. I simply have a different view of the purpose and use of the system than some others do. And that's fine. I only fear that the desire for reputation may supercede that for discussion. If rep is given away too freely, people may take a lack of upvotes on a post to mean that said post is of little or at least lesser value, and this is not conducive to discussion. We should not be posting just for the rep, but because we wish to contribute something to a conversation that we find interesting. The real issue is that there is a tough balance. Yes, upvotes are good and encouraging, especially to new members, but if we use them too much, they lose some of their value.

I wonder if the new reputation system has something to do with this. Its being instated pretty much coincided with the burst of new members following the release of WoR. Several members (myself included) have made large amounts of posts since them, far more than many made any time before then. The new system has way more rep levels than the old one, and the transitions occur far more often. Now there is a drive to make more posts and get more upvotes to get to the higher levels, which are more easily attainable. So while this is still conducive to more discussion, we end up with people, whether they are consciously doing so or not, striving harder to gain more rep.

But in the end, we will all use the rep system as we choose to, and as long as it is not overtly abusive of the system it is totally fine!

[TenSoon he/him]

Switching topic completely, I'd just like to point something out. All the way back on Page 1, Chaos said there were 102 positive levels in the new reputation system. However, in the current system, there are only 82. Does this seriously mean there are 20 new levels yet to be discovered? If so, any speculation on what they might be? The only thing I can think of is all of the known shards, (as of today, that's 10), and then Adonalsium. Apart from that, I have no idea. And also, how would you judge one Shard above another? My only guess is that the splintered shards would be at the bottom, then the whole Shards, then Odium (it does say he is the strongest single shard somewhere), and then Harmony. Any ideas?

[Left he/him]

Swimmingly is a Mistborn at 2052, maybe a little earlier I didn't see.

[Swimmingly he/him]

Probably 2048?

[Left he/him]

Probably.

 

[Delightful]

Swimmingly is a Mistborn at 2052, maybe a little earlier I didn't see.

2047 I think was still Taracin Superstar, 2045 definitely was.

Edited July 10, 2014 by Delightful

[Sir Jerric he/him]

I had seen him at Tarachin Superstar back at 2037 rep. I also hazard the guess that Mistborn started at 2048, also known as 2¹¹.

Edited July 10, 2014 by Sir Jerric