I have enabled the Reputation System on WB. That means people can award you "reputation points" for your good posts. Your current reputation is located under your post total and is symbolized by green bars. When you hover your mouse over the bar there is a more detailed message about your reputation. You get 1 green bar for every 100 rep points you receive. A black bar means you have no points yet.
Don't be fooled, though. Even though you may only see 1 green bar, you can still have more points than someone else with 1 bar since the bars only increase with every 100 rep points. Make sure you hover over your green bar every once and a while or check the UserCP to see what posts have earned you your most recent rep points.
Now, to prevent abuse there are some caveats...
1) You have to have a certain reputation for your reputation points to count on another member (undisclosed amount). The more reputable you are, the greater your votes influence someone else's reputation.
2) You can only give a certain number of rep points within a 24 hour period
3) The point system is purposely vague and complex to prevent abuse
To give reputation points to someone, click the scale icon on the top-right bar of the member's post. If someone posted something that was very helpful, then this is a good way to reward them. Depending on your member status you may even be able to assign negative rep points. This is to be used if someone posts something that is inappropriate, spammy, suspicious, etc.
If you disagree with someone's stance or opinion, that is not a reason to assign negative rep points. It is mainly for inappropriate forum behavior.
All reputation points (positive and negative) are awarded anonymously.
If WB members follow the above guidelines, the reputation system will work very nicely.
You can see what posts have earned you reputation points by clicking your own post's scale icon.
As the Admin, I can see who is giving points to whom and will be monitoring this over time. If I notice people giving negative points to quality posts then I may disable the negative point feature for members and set it to where only I can award negative points.
This reputation system may have a big impact in this forum in the long-run because I may use it to award prizes and other forum privileges (free advertising, etc). Keep in mind this system is new to me too so I may be adjusting things from time to time. So if you see something quirky, it's probably just me messing around.
That's why I don't want to award anyone just yet. I want to see how this will play out.
What I Don't Want to See...
I'm already starting to see more "FYI" threads that look more like announcements than discussion-provoking posts. Remember, the point of a forum is to discuss. So please do not post how-to articles or links to other "helpful sites" just to try and boost your own reputation. I will not be awarding people for such posts. Replying to members with helpful answers is a much better way to earn reputation points.
I hope everyone plays fair and takes the time to award members for their well thought out posts. Enjoy!
