Discussion: The End Of Reputation & Rank?

[Key Elements]

@Leo Gura Yes, I agree with those who said to keep the rep points for only the posts/threads on the forum, so that you'll know who is attracted to what kinds of posts being posted. You will know the person better and his/her intentions.

[aEOf]

Yay

[RawJudah]

Please do this Leo! We need to be equal to use our brains more, and to find the truth of what people are saying for ourselves.

Brilliant idea, surprised it hasn’t been done already...

[Lorcan]

11 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

I see lots of egos running around wild on this forum, myself not excluded.

Part of the problem is that the forum fuels this. All online platforms do. It's just the nature of the beast. But for us it's particularly distracting.

So to reduce that, the idea came to mind to remove all reputation points and ranks. What this would mean is:

• No more titles like Common Chimp, Great Ape, etc.
• No more reputation points by your username
• No more Thumbs Up button!
• No more Thumbs Up scores on individual posts

Basically, all members would be equal. All posts and responses would just ride on the weight of their logic. This change would strip out all the social proof which now exists. This would be a pretty significant change, so I wanted to see how you guys feel about that.

With this, there would be no way to tell which member is more reputable than another, or which thread is highly liked or respected. The biggest downside would that the best content, and the most trustworthy members, would be harder to spot. The biggest upside would be that we stop wasting time looking at who thumbed-up what. And it would force people to actually read the content of a post before pre-judging it. And I would like to get rid of my rank/reputation.

It would still be possible to see how many total posts a user made. That stat is not going away.

I am still undecided about this.

Yea or nay?

Speak now or forever hold your peace.

Yes.

I agree. A persons judgement on the wisdom of a certain post should be left entirely to their own devices. The like counter is kind of food to impress the ego. A post with more likes is a post with higher status. The ego is drawn and bias to higher status.

Titles should be taken away. The only thing that should be the core representation of a member on this forum is their unique username and profile picture.

What you did not think about is that people can still express whether they like, or disliked what someone said without a need for a like button.

I can always quote someones post and say "I liked what you said", which is nearly the same as a like. It just takes more effort, and if everyone starts doing it, posts will become rather cluttered.

So maybe you can implement a rule stating that you cannot simply state you like or dislike a post. That you have to off a counter-claim/argument.

[Toby]

Yes, I'm for it because it distracts. At least it distracts myself.

[Nahm]

I think it’s better as it is. There’s more data to allow a broader view and more nuanced observation. When a response has more ‘likes’, and it’s not how I see things, it helps me really slow down and consider what’s being said. Also, there is an overwhelming amount of information and human resource (users) available on this forum - when I was a brand new user, the total points and ratio of posts/points, was very useful and eye opening.                     When I’ve said something I thought was true, and then someone says otherwise, and it gets a lot of ‘likes’, it helped me uncover my own beliefs. I don’t think I could put a price on that - I didn’t even know I was stubborn. I think the posts that turn into ego battles would actually increase not decrease because a user wouldn’t have the “long term record” of ratio showing. Truth be told, I like the ego battles because those are some of the most significant breakthroughs, when the smoke clears. Plus their entertaining and sometimes even exciting. 

[SOUL]

I enjoy giving a thumbs up without having to make a post to tell someone I do but tallying those up votes into reputation may lead to ego fluffing. The titles can be enjoyable but them being comparative or a status in nature can also lead to ego fluffing.

Of course even member names and avatar pics can be ego fluffing, too..... and the ideas and concepts.... and the techniques and methods..... and threads and replies.... and... well dangit, everything can lead to ego fluffing, can we just remove everything in the forum?

Just pages and pages of blankness, that would reflect the infinite nothingness everything supposedly is, right?

*sigh*.....

[TriteNTrue]

@Leo Gura  That'd be quite a wild experiment. Imagine if that happened in our society today.  Everyone got a blank slate from everyone every time they expressed themselves, everyone was 'free' to weigh in. 

I'm new, I feel like a noob sometimes when I weigh in because  I don't have reputation points. And I'm more likely to linger on someone's post with higher reputation points. I just enjoy a lively deep dive and expression into the topics, egos will be hurt in the process and that's an opportunity for introspection.

I'd be for it as an experiment

Perhaps in the future we could even have ego purge "periods" whenever the "threshold" hit.

 

 

 

 

[ProblemSolving]

Leos videos are a perfect example of minimalism. Why not do that in this forum as well.

[Edvard]

Capitalism is unfair, but often more productive. Communism is fair, but often less productive. Unless ego is dissolved altogether. In that case, one wouldn't care what system is, then really no system is needed, not even laws. I think most people, including me, will have a hard time not letting ego take over at least a little bit sometimes with the current system.

[Guest Annetta]

I found the upvote disable button so I don't really care.  Do whatever, it's just a forum.

[Everyday]

Yes! 

[Afonso]

Leave it as it is.

[Guest Annetta]

There is one thing though, what about really important threads that have 'featured' on them?  Like guides and stuff?  

There might need to be a solution for that so they don't get drowned out.

[Scarecrow]

I like the idea

[Moreira]

Reputation is needed to differentiate users who help from trolls. Also newbies can rely more in experienced users.

Thumbs are needed for feedback. And seeing people from the other side of the world that resonate with your ideas and principles is very good in a dumb society where the awaken are few.

It also indicates if you'be been useful to somebody, or to say thanks without having to make a post to type it.

[Antonius]

As a insecure newbie and a lurker, I don't like posting because I think there is always someone more advanced to answer a question.

Maybe removing this stuff would encourage more people to express themselves.

Also most importantly people would have to rely on their critical thinking, not just be lazy and look for most upvoted posts. 

I think it should be possible to upvote posts though, but don't show how much reputation users have. 

[RichardY]

Reputation: Vote up as well as down, but give a reason, 6 words(or whatever short like eBay) or less.

Filtration & Specialization: Have some form of caste or class system with tags to better find what you might be interested in.

[zazed]

Votes on individual posts:

• Provide feedback of quality to me
• Allow me to give feedback without posting an actual reply message
• He who shouts hardest is often deemed right in society, voting is more Democratic.

Total post count - Does not serve any purpose.
Total reputation count - encourages reputation trading and clique forming. 

[Will Bigger]

yes. do it.