Giant Bomb should incorporate a Reputation system

Giant Bomb should incorporate a Reputation system. Basically, it would work like this: If you see a really informative post, you should be able to give "Kudos" (or whatever you want to call it) to the poster. However, there's no such thing as giving a post a negative score. This system eliminates those who "negative" anyone they disagree with, and rewards those who are helpful and post intelligently. 

I approve of this idea.

I agree. We should have an easy way to approve of well thought out messages. The Kudos idea sounds great. 

+1

Although, people with 2nd accounts (or 3rd, or 4th, or 546th) can exploit the system.

That is actually a pretty good idea.

Well the only thing is we should come up with a different name then "Kudos", because that's the name Sony uses on their forums.

I don't like it when forums turn into popularity contests.  Groups of people will vote for their friends and real informative or intelligent posts will be lost.  Sony's official forums is a good example.  Let reputation be something we learn by reading each others posts, not represented by some worthless number.

"I don't like it when forums turn into popularity contests.  Groups of people will vote for their friends and real informative or intelligent posts will be lost.  Sony's official forums is a good example.  Let reputation be something we learn by reading each others posts, not represented by some worthless number."

Yeah, this here is the number fifteen person on the blacklist. You got a lot of rep to earn before you can run with him.

Well, thenDiamond said:

"I don't like it when forums turn into popularity contests.  Groups of people will vote for their friends and real informative or intelligent posts will be lost.  Sony's official forums is a good example.  Let reputation be something we learn by reading each others posts, not represented by some worthless number."

Yay, something I support! However, I do think that there should be negative scores. How so? Moderations. 'Nuf said.

Well, then we'll scratch the profile idea, and we'll just have positives on good posts. If we eliminate the negatives, then trolls can't use it as a weapon.

Either way, we need something that rewards users

+1 Jolly...+1

"Video_Game_King said:

"Yay, something I support! However, I do think that there should be negative scores. How so? Moderations. 'Nuf said."

That's what flagging is for."

I'd give Jolly my first Kudos point.

"+1 Jolly...+1"

A history lesson for you all, and some spoilers for others?

When the Community Ratings Tool aka the +/- tool was added to the site it was done under the assumption it would be an effective form of community moderation allowing users the ability to flag a topic after it recieved X number of negative votes into a queue for us Forum Mods to look over. For the first few days it worked out great, until you all abused the shit out of it and we eventually had it 'switched off' some time ago. It has been sitting their idle for a long long time while the Engineers and Mods thought up a better form of user moderation which we have now in the Karma System. This new and the old system were always originally designed to aid in moderation more than some form of online fistbumping to express your appreciation of a post or topic.

Even with it switched off as a form of flagging posts or topics for moderation the tool was still abused. How many legitimate posters received a flood of negative votes because they have a small reputation around the site? How often did legitimate topics of discussion turn into nothing more than a popularity contest? And how often did people show disappointment and resent when they see their topic or blog get a -20 rating within minutes of posting it.

Most of you I'm sure were law-abiding users and tried to use the tool for good. But a vast majority didn't really do this and a lot of the time it caused topics to turn into a popularity contest which is not something any of us want to see continue. I know a lot of you enjoyed seeing your posts or topics get the +1 treatment from other users, but the vast majority of them did not get this.

If you really want to express your appreciation of someone's topic or post then fire a comment to their wall or a PM to their inbox. That is a lot better than some anonymous +1 to their post or topic.

If you can accumulate that over time then won't it just divide members into the old elitists and the newcomers? I can already imagine people going "dude what r u talking about, get some kudos then come back again, noob" lol. And you can't really use it for anything unless you start RESEARCHING people, like what date they joined, etc, to make the average of how much kudos they receive daily, then see if they've maybe not been very active at periods to see if that kudos they have really means anything or it's just there cos he's been a member for ages, or if low kudos means anything or it's just low cos he's not been very active, etc, etc. Really, I don't see what good is yet another e-penis amplifier...

Edit: Ok and agree with what Hamz said.

So Hamz, im curious as to what sort of posts warrant a flag. could you give me some examples? I just want to know what to look for.

OK, Hamz, I see where you are getting at. I don't necessarily agree with you 100% on the +1 thing, mainly because there are sometimes a lot of good posts that I see on forums and i don't really want to congratulate them all, but you have a point.

Unfortunately, the team of users that -1 Smug were part of this problem, amirite? Too bad. I wasn't part of that group.

"So Hamz, im curious as to what sort of posts warrant a flag. could you give me some examples? I just want to know what to look for."

Wow, so our -'s weren't even getting through to the mods for a while now? That's a little weird...

A number couldn't possibly describe my mid-90's RPG hipster attitude, but apparently words can sum it up.

"Okay, its just its going to be tough getting aquainted to this new policy when i was so used to the minus system that wasn't nearly as harsh as what this seems to be. So we'll be using flagging very rarely correct?"

"But sometimes I simply don't have the time to send a PM. Most of the time, I use GB for 10 minutes and then do other things. A +1 is much more rewarding since it shows other users that your post was appreciated. And It's easy and quick to use.

Do we need something on our profile page that displays our reputation? No, I just added that in there. We don't need a reputation. It's quite obvious that most of us are missing out on a reward system that a few knuckleheads destroyed, but if we eliminate the negatives, and we keep the positives, it will make it much harder to cheat, and it will make us much happier."

I've seen it before as kudos and as "thanks".  I don't really think it's necessary because anyone who gives the topic creator a thumbs up will probably post and compliment them again anyway.

+1 Cool
+1 Funny
+1 Ditto
+1 Zing!
-1 Lame
-1 WTF
-1 Noob
-1 Flamebait

Nah seriously, enough of this, the Karma system is just fine, we'll just have to get used to it.

"It's definitely not necessary, but it gives the impression that Giant Bomb rewards users, rather then just punishing them. I see many great posts, but I don't have the time to comment on them all. 

Anyways, how would a +1 system hurt anyone? You can't attack anyone with it. And it's not like it's a hard thing to add on."

I'm glad to see the +/- go, since it was being used more as I agree / I disagree.  Flagging a post as inappropriate is less tempting than I disagree.

The quality post is a neat idea.  Kind of like the reviews section has a list of users with the most recommended reviews, it could go right below the top posters list in the forums.  I think it would actually be better to replace the top posters list.  Quality over quantity, you know.

"Origina1Penguin said:

"I'm glad to see the +/- go, since it was being used more as I agree / I disagree.  Flagging a post as inappropriate is less tempting than I disagree.

The quality post is a neat idea.  Kind of like the reviews section has a list of users with the most recommended reviews, it could go right below the top posters list in the forums.  I think it would actually be better to replace the top posters list.  Quality over quantity, you know."

You think so? I think most of the time people were reasonable about when they gave - to posts. It was normally for inflammatory posts and Smug, or both. "

"I'm off to bed, I look forward to reading the comments in this topic in the morning!"

A Kudos system would be pretty snazzy.  Maybe they will implement it some time in the future.