Neg rep is no more

I've decided to remove negative rep from the site. A long time ago, when I built the system (and later reformed it), the expectation was it would be used very democratically, with lots of downvotes that nobody took all that personally. Kind of a Slashdot (and later, reddit) thing. But over time it hasn't been used that way, and it occurs to me that such systems only work when the site's entire identity is built around them. For example, with relatively disposable accounts. It doesn't work on sites with real, consistent identities and lots of people interacting regularly and directly.

Without that, it just causes fights.

So, after having thought about it for quite some time, I've removed negative rep from the site. I am, as always, open to feedback and ideas, but I've gone over a lot of the options in my head more than once over the years, and I'm pretty confident that this type of system is the best for this type of site.

May this usher in a new epoch of peace and prosperity throughout our fine forum. Huzzah.

Aww...does that mean all those neg reps I recieved from Trolls will be deleted?

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Huzzah!

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Hmmm. I wasn't planning on going back and deleting the old ones or anything, unless there's a huge outcry for it. For just about every regular the good totally dwarfs the bad already, and that'll only become more pronounced now that there won't be any more negs.

As someone who never got a neg rep while it was available, I am a happy camper. My rep is 100% positive and always will be. WOOO!

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You are no Vader. You are just a child in a mask.

I think this is definitely for the better.

Will you not be reforming the statistics page at all, then? Because having a negative rep figure on the tracker but no option to give give it out any more seems a little weird.

Sexy celebrity when he hears the news:


Idk I never really minded negative rep, and I think some people did deserve it on some posts. But I will have to write less apologies when I neg rep someone on accident.

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Good question. I'll probably revisit it after a little while, yeah.

Yeah, that's another part of it. A lot were just by accident, anyway. It ended up actually being a not-insignificant amount of work to remove the accidents and/or the abuses. Which I'd be glad to do if the system had some moderate amount of value, but I don't think it did, in the end.

Oh well. Lesson learned.

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"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." - Michelangelo.

Good show!

*Claps*

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I'm just glad that I won't be getting neg rep for ridiculous reasons anymore. You know, like saying that Being John Malkovich isn't overrated.

I completely disagree with removing it, Yoda. Sorry, but I do. The neg rep can help indicate who the trolls are around here and who's best to be avoided. I don't care if it starts fights, fights are natural. It's the closest I am ever going to come to punching anybody in the face on here, so I for one will miss it and urge you to reconsider.

Do people honestly get butt hurt over getting negged?


lol.

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I think most people were angry about WHY they got neg repped. I've made posts where i've deserve a **** load of negs and didn't receive them, and i've made posts in which stating my opinion resulted in a bunch of mindless negs.

So yeah, it could get problematic at times, but it balances the system. Now we've got no choice but to pat each other on the back as if we're all best buds and ****. ****ing sucks, man.

Aww man. I never even got a down vote.

Man, this sucks! Now how am I going to downvote The Rodent?

Who cares if it was mindless? Proximity negged like 5 posts of mine in a row because he is the angriest person on forums and couldn't think of a better way to spite me out of anger. If anything, it was self-satisfying. Not to mention that +reps are given out so liberally on this site, so rep almost seems pointless in the grand scheme of things. "Oh jesus all these movies suck so much ass, but I did like this one when I was 8. +1." It's hardly like the few and far between negs even effect your rep, if you're the type of person who cares that much. Negs are hardly even a blemish, even on my account. You need to grow up if you're the type of person who gets flustered over being negged on an interent forum.

In the end, rep is just meaningless and worthless tallies on the interwebz (not even the entire interwebz, just a teeny tiny small ass microscopic portion), and if you fret over a measly "neg" then you need to reevaluate your life.

No problem, I don't mind you saying so. But hear me out: in my experience it really hasn't helped anyone spot trolls. How would that work? You read something and don't know it's trollish until you see the red number above it? Either it's quick and over, or it's prolonged, in which case the troll is almost invariably gone before long, anyway. And far from it helping you avoid people, I'll bet that big red number makes everyone more likely to read and reply something, rather than less. I just can't construct a plausible scenario where it provides useful, actionable information to people.

The "balance" thing you're talking about is exactly why I implemented this system in the first place. It just hasn't even remotely materialized in practice. I can talk all day about how I think the system should be used--and early on, I did--but I can't make people use it the right way. At a certain point my notions of how something should be have to take a backseat to how things are.

And I'll have to disagree a little more strenuously with your second post. This isn't forcing you to pat anyone on the back or be anyone's bud. It's just requiring people to actually express their disagreement with words. That's not exactly forcing everyone to sing Kumbaya.

872 positive reps and 0 negative reps for me whilst the system was in place

Good idea to remove it anyway, I've seen it used quite a lot just because people disagree with opinions or have a personal vendetta against someone and are arguing, becomes a bit childish at times.

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I would give Yoda neg rep for taking away neg rep, but I can't. It didn't bother me most of the time except when it was used for vindictive reasons instead of actually reacting to a post. I think though I may have the distinction of receiving the very last neg because last night I got another from that joker who expected us to win their contest of unjumbling fifty movie titles in Movie Questions.

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It reminds me of a toilet paper on the trees
- Paula