sounds like a sweet deal

"Pro tip: If you enjoyed a post or topic made by someone, send them a wall comment and express that gratitude via a short message. Or reply to their topic with a comment stating you enjoyed their earlier reply or whatever :)As for the new Karma System it is awesome. Very awesome. And for those worried about it being abused or being the victim of abuse, no worries. We have that covered on our end, we can deal with trouble makers a lot quicker and easier now. And all you guys and girls have to do is click a button when you see someone posting something they shouldn't. Instead of sending us a PM."

Will my karma affect my dialogue options or NPC reactions?

I'm not sure I like this. You get penalized for being a good forum user and reporting posts. I can understand losing karma when you flag a post, but shouldn't you get it back when a moderator confirms confirms it was a correct flag?

It makes me a little nervous but I doubt I have anything to worry about
.MattyFTM said:

"I'm not sure I like this. You get penalized for being a good forum user and reporting posts. I can understand losing karma when you flag a post, but shouldn't you get it back when a moderator confirms confirms it was a correct flag?"

I really liked the old +/- system. Ah, you can't have it your way all the time I guess.

I think the [+] [-] system should be reimplementd without it being used for moderation purposes.  Just for the users to have fun rating other posts... other than that the "Karma" system sounds good to me.

I'm gonna miss the [ +  - ] system.

Why can't we keep them both?! D:

"It makes me a little nervous but I doubt I have anything to worry about
.MattyFTM said:

"I'm not sure I like this. You get penalized for being a good forum user and reporting posts. I can understand losing karma when you flag a post, but shouldn't you get it back when a moderator confirms confirms it was a correct flag?"

I believe you get your karma point back if what you flagged is removed."

"I'm gonna miss the [ +  - ] system.Why can't we keep them both?! D:"

"Snail said:

"I'm gonna miss the [ +  - ] system.Why can't we keep them both?! D:"

Because we were not using it the way we were supposed to, apparently. People were giving negative ratings to people with unpopular opinions, people who made site suggestions that others felt were not necessary, and more. People like SmugDarkLoser would make posts and end up with ratings of -∞, no matter what they actually said."

This sounded scary until the safeguards were mentioned.

Smug lives on to troll another day.

"LordAndrew said:

"Snail said:

"I'm gonna miss the [ +  - ] system.Why can't we keep them both?! D:"

Because we were not using it the way we were supposed to, apparently. People were giving negative ratings to people with unpopular opinions, people who made site suggestions that others felt were not necessary, and more. People like SmugDarkLoser would make posts and end up with ratings of -∞, no matter what they actually said."

So what?It wasn't used for moderation, it was used for opinions, just like +1ing comments on YouTube or GameSpot. What's so wrong with that?"

"Snail said:

"LordAndrew said:

"Snail said:

"I'm gonna miss the [ +  - ] system.Why can't we keep them both?! D:"

Because we were not using it the way we were supposed to, apparently. People were giving negative ratings to people with unpopular opinions, people who made site suggestions that others felt were not necessary, and more. People like SmugDarkLoser would make posts and end up with ratings of -∞, no matter what they actually said."

So what?It wasn't used for moderation, it was used for opinions, just like +1ing comments on YouTube or GameSpot. What's so wrong with that?"

Actually, it was implement to help with moderation.  If a post got a -2 or above, it was sent to a mod queue where we would take appropriate action.  You were not supposed to give it a [-] rating if you simply didn't like what he said.  You were supposed to give it a [-] if you feel like the post broke forum.  The community just turned it into the system you described.  You do not need a system in place to tell people that you like their post/comments/whatever.  You simply just tell them your appreciation."

They did...

"CitizenKane said:

"Snail said:

"LordAndrew said:

"Snail said:

"I'm gonna miss the [ +  - ] system.Why can't we keep them both?! D:"

Because we were not using it the way we were supposed to, apparently. People were giving negative ratings to people with unpopular opinions, people who made site suggestions that others felt were not necessary, and more. People like SmugDarkLoser would make posts and end up with ratings of -∞, no matter what they actually said."

So what?It wasn't used for moderation, it was used for opinions, just like +1ing comments on YouTube or GameSpot. What's so wrong with that?"

Actually, it was implement to help with moderation.  If a post got a -2 or above, it was sent to a mod queue where we would take appropriate action.  You were not supposed to give it a [-] rating if you simply didn't like what he said.  You were supposed to give it a [-] if you feel like the post broke forum.  The community just turned it into the system you described.  You do not need a system in place to tell people that you like their post/comments/whatever.  You simply just tell them your appreciation."

Well it certainly is a good thing that the mods let us know about that before the abuse happened! *rolls eyes*"

I just want the [+] back. I rarely used the [-]. :'(

"natetodamax said:

"CitizenKane said:

"Snail said:

"LordAndrew said:

"Snail said:

"I'm gonna miss the [ +  - ] system.Why can't we keep them both?! D:"

Because we were not using it the way we were supposed to, apparently. People were giving negative ratings to people with unpopular opinions, people who made site suggestions that others felt were not necessary, and more. People like SmugDarkLoser would make posts and end up with ratings of -∞, no matter what they actually said."

So what?It wasn't used for moderation, it was used for opinions, just like +1ing comments on YouTube or GameSpot. What's so wrong with that?"

Actually, it was implement to help with moderation.  If a post got a -2 or above, it was sent to a mod queue where we would take appropriate action.  You were not supposed to give it a [-] rating if you simply didn't like what he said.  You were supposed to give it a [-] if you feel like the post broke forum.  The community just turned it into the system you described.  You do not need a system in place to tell people that you like their post/comments/whatever.  You simply just tell them your appreciation."

Well it certainly is a good thing that the mods let us know about that before the abuse happened! *rolls eyes*"

We did numerous times and warned everyone about it."

ok so lets get this straight.

• the post gets moderated
• I lose 1 karma point

kar⋅ma

 /ˈkɑrmə/Show Spelled Pronunciation[kahr-muh]Show IPA

ok so lets get this straight.

If i see a stupid porn link on the forums, I flag the post. As a result of this,

• the post gets moderated
• I lose 1 karma point

If I reach a certain number of negative karma points I can't flag stuff anymore (for 1 day, at least).
If the content I flagged is seen to need moderation, I get my karma point back.

I don't know about you guys but that seems kinda messed up to me. Surely it would be better to REWARD users who successfully flag inappropriate content? Like... the mods give them +1 karma, instead of just removing the -1 they get automatically?

As CK said we are manually making sure we reset the Karma level of those users who flag content that genuinely requires moderation. The system is designed to limit the amount of abuse it receives from the community, we've learn't our lesson from the previous ratings tool.

A 5 flag limit means users should, in theory, make sure what they flag genuinely needs a Forum Moderators attention. If people happen to waste their limit by flagging posts they simply disagree with then tough luck, the system is designed to handle this situation.

I guess this means goodbye to SmugDarkLoser.

*rubs hands together*

Why would a person lose a karma point for flagging something when they were helping the mods and the site?

I'm okay with that

While the system sounds pretty cool, it sounds like a massive workload being added for the mods.  I may be incorrect about this, but let me use this example as a theory:

Ok I get the feeling some people are still confused and perhaps missing the point entirely on why when you flag content you lose a Karma point. Below is Snide's explanation which can be found on PAGE 2 of this very blog.

The reporter loses a point because if they didn't you'd have people trying to flag stuff just to go to war with people and the mod queue would fill with fake reports. With this, there is a very slight consequence to making the decision to flag someone. The reality is that it would be pretty rare for you to feel the need to report more then 5 posts on the boards a day.

If you're a good user you have nothing to worry about reporting a bad post and losing a point, because you're not worried about 9 other people that day attacking you.

Take 5 mins and run through the scenarios of people going into board wars. Having the reporter lose a measely point for the report doesn't hurt them in any way. By the next day, they're back to zero anyway. It does however prevent people from trying to spam-flag a good user.

The reason we don't show karma is because it's not neccessary to know. I can pretty much garunttee 99.9% of our users will be at 0 everyday. The only reason we explain the scoring is so that it's transparent and you understand the rules. The reality is we're becoming a larger site and it's impossible to ask our forum mods to read every post in every thread. By giving them a report mechanism they can now act more quickly to things the community deems inappropriate. Saying you hate halo isn't going to get you in trouble. The mods would look at it, quickly laugh and ignore the report, thereby giving the "offending" user his point back. And hey, as we all know, Giant Bomb is pretty lax about its forums. That's not going to change. This really just helps us take care of the 2 or 3 asshats every day who love to jump on the site and post porn or directly attack other users. The fact that most people don't see that happening on our boards is a tribute to our mod crew.

As we see how it works, we'll roll this same system into comments, user reviews and trivia over the next week. Believe me, it's nothing to be worried about.

I understand Snide's point on this whole thing, and I'd like to think that the users on Giant Bomb aren't a bunch of jerks.  I also understand what you are saying that people aren't being punished by this system, Hamz.

I imagine doing something like that would lead to some sort of punishment for the people involved. I don't know about being nice, but I don't think the people here are that stupid. The karma system isn't anonymous.

10 people could, for instance, easily form an alliance through PMs and such that would end up locking Smug from posting anything at all.  I understand that there is a 5 flag count before you can't flag anymore posts and such, and the 10 post thing before anyone can't post anymore.

My main issue is people who decide to go on a spamming spree. We're only able to flag five of their posts before we're forced to give up and PM a moderator about it. Unless we're supposed to assume that the mods will see that they're repeat offenders and take care of the rest of their posts that never got a chance to be flagged. But is it really fair to assume that the mods would go to such lengths?

Unless we're supposed to assume that the mods will see that they're repeat offenders and take care of the rest of their posts that never got a chance to be flagged. But is it really fair to assume that the mods would go to such lengths?"

And I wouldn't expect you to. But there will always be things that will go unnoticed by the mods if they're not reported. And if we use up all our karma on one bad user and then come across some more violations, then we'll have to go through the PM route until our karma is restored. It just seems a bit... convoluted. I don't know.

Give it some time, I have a feeling some adjustments are coming soon.

One would expect that a Karma point would be replenished for users upon successful post referrals.

Hamz said:

"Pro tip: If you enjoyed a post or topic made by someone, send them a wall comment and express that gratitude via a short message. Or reply to their topic with a comment stating you enjoyed their earlier reply or whatever :)As for the new Karma System it is awesome. Very awesome. And for those worried about it being abused or being the victim of abuse, no worries. We have that covered on our end, we can deal with trouble makers a lot quicker and easier now. And all you guys and girls have to do is click a button when you see someone posting something they shouldn't. Instead of sending us a PM."

I'm oddly scared

This could definitely work.

What if you flag yourself? Do you get -2 karma points?

I would like an implementation of some kind of +1 system (so when scrolling down, I don't have to read through a bunch of "+1" "agree" "hell, yeah!" posts) - sometimes people just want to do that without too much comment. Some initial stipulations:

1. You can't +1 yourself - an admonishing Luchadeer should pop up
2. You can only +1 a post once
3. You should be limited to say, five a day - pick the 5 best posts and +1 them, if a sixth comes up, you can +1 it tomorrow. This helps prevent circle jerk enabling and people who compliment anything and brown nosing and "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" people.
   
4. This in no way "cancels" bad karma points. If someone posts an inappropriate post and a like minded troll +1's it, too bad, it gets handled the same way by the mods

So I see Neutral Karma (0). And Bad Karma (-5, -10). How do we get Good Karma?

And is there anyway we can take that bean counter & apply it to our profiles kind of
like how it is in Fallout 3?  I'd like to see a Very Evil dastardly Fallout Boy icon on my
profile. :-)

"So I see Neutral Karma (0). And Bad Karma (-5, -10).

"The reporter loses a point because if they didn't you'd have people trying to flag stuff just to go to war with people and the mod queue would fill with fake reports. With this, there is a very slight consequence to making the decision to flag someone. The reality is that it would be pretty rare for you to feel the need to report more then 5 posts on the boards a day.

I will never report any post, since I am being punished for doing it. If this system had been in use when a crazy user posted porn. I would have been fucked for reporting the porn.Anything else than me losing the negative karma for a PROPER flagging of another ones post is shit."

karma points? Funny!
I'm curious to know how you're going to setup (technically) this thing?

Is it integrated to the system or it is an excel sheet (by hand I mean)?

It's all built into the site. They wouldn't be able to automatically revoke privileges at -5 and -10 if it wasn't.

If an item is flagged by more people does it move up in the mod queue? That would probably help eliminate the really bad stuff faster, and restore karma to people who may have had their privileges unfairly revoked by people who abusively report stuff.

    Another recommendation would be giving, um, I can't think of a better term, "snitch points," where someone correctly identifies someone that has a "bad" post.  Note it has to be an authentic snitch, and not just "I don't like him"
    Why have snitch points? Well, if someone wants to be a forum moderator, this can show how often they are on the boards and they can identify the bad posts and show a desire to get the situation corrected. This is basically what forum moderators do. Even if the higher ups don't actually give points, they'll at least be able to see the people who really care and can identify real problems, so when they have their secret elections, this can be used to help decide.
    And no people, don't abuse this to try to become a mod. Who wants a mod that comes down on people for everything? And one sure way not to become a mod is to bug the higher ups that you want to be one, cabals don't work that way.

On the recent spamming...if the users who posted stuff like "OMG STOP SPAMMING" had instead simply flagged the offending posts, the user in question would have quickly had his posting privileges revoked. Instead, he sat at 9 points...just short of the 10 needed to stop him from spamming.

Thanks to everyone who has been using this feature, it's been working out great. I only wish that more people were actually using it.