LQ Reputation System is now in BETA
 

I'm happy to announce that the LQ reputation system is now in BETA. Thanks for all the feedback provided by members here. I'm going to outline how the system works in this post, but if you're interested in further details I encourage you to read the linked thread.

Clicking the scales icon (or "Rep" link) in any post will allow you to leave feedback for a member. Here are some of the guidelines and details on how the system works.

* Any member will be able to opt out of the reputation system. To do so, go to Edit Options -> Show Your Reputation Level
* Members in the "New Member" group will not be able to use the reputation system. Once a member makes a single post and is in the "Member" group, they will be able to use the system. A member in the "Senior Member" group or higher will be able to leave positive or negative reputation. All negative reputation will require a comment and will count at 50%.
* A member will need to have a certain number of posts before they can give reputation off reputation and the amount of reputation you'll be able to give will depend on a variety of factors including length of membership, number of posts and amount of reputation.
* Using the "Did you find this post helpful" system with a yes will impact reputation by +1. Using the "Did you find this post helpful" system with a No will not impact reputation.

* Phase 2 of the system will probably include some forum specific component, where you have an LQ-wide reputation which can be broken down by on a per forum basis.

Thanks for the continued feedback on this topic. We put considerable thought into this and truly feel that this will be a large improvement over the "Thanks" system it replaced. If you have any specific suggestions on how you think we have make things better, please let us know.

--jeremy

Interesting idea

good idea but if you're going to go that route why not include relevancy along the following lines:

you could also scale it based on how recently the points were gained i.e. last 12 months * 100%, last 24 months * 75%. last 36 months * 50% and older than 36 months * 25% or something like that.

something i feel would be far more useful is a flag denoting whether the issue has been resolved or not. this means that if you need a hand you can search for resolved issues and vice-a-versa if you can lend a hand.

We've had this at LQ for a very long time now.

--jeremy

where?

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d-beta-733937/

--jeremy

Wow what a change-Been a year since I was here
 

Lets see been through 11 distros. met some great people from all over the world. Each one literally gave me a piece of themselves through Linux. I thanked them for each of them added to my Linux "reputation" and creditability. The need for identity and recognition beats within each of us to some degree. I truly like the change and this from a 78 year old perspective design1
PS yea you purists I did top post so what!

What happens to all the 'Thanks' we've gotten? Do they just disappear?! Can you make it so that a 'Thanks' == +Rep x2 ?

Hi,

The 'Thanks' you received before the reputation system was put into action have been included in the Reputation points you have now as indicated in this post.

Kind regards,

Eric

Will this mention of LQ-wide include tutorials and articles that are submitted and accepted.

dazz sounds good....nice idea~

ofcourse larry this will include all that...as per i read the conversation so long ....

that is really good news

This is something that we'd certainly consider as part of a phase 2 feature for the rep system.

--jeremy

Good feature
 

Thanks Jeremy
I found solutions to many of the issues I ran into in the field, in this forum

hope that's not stupid
 

I hope that I'm not look as a fool if I'm telling that I got a problem how to quote !
If I have a look to the icons I'm actually not sure if they are organized
for example left top icon is best, right bottom icon is worst,
Or for a helpfull reply just use smiling smiley or thumb up ?
And are there any scores behind the icons and how quote without the icons ?
robeich

Hello Jeremy,
its a good idea and will give all those helpers some recognition for their efforts, delta bravo.

This is a really bad idea. I find it hard to believe that LQ has put as much thought into it as claimed, because the problem is too obvious: by making the reputation personal, you give a red-carpet invitation to people who want to make personal attacks, lowering reputations as much as they can. The 'thanks' button did not do this.

It would have made much more sense to replace the 'thanks' button with something that allows more finely-grained feedback/gratitude, WITHOUT making it personal. I have in mind, as a rough example, a very short survey asking such questions as "Was this response on topic?", "Were you able to solve the problem with the info in this response?", "was the response polite/clear?" and a few more like that.

I think the idea is great. Reputations like this can be cheated though.

irajjs
 

I'm interested in why you think people will be incented to "lower reputations as much as they can"? Is that your perception of the community here at LQ? Additionally, you do understand that only the most Senior members have access to the ability to use the negative portion of the system?

--jeremy

it
 

One of the main goals of LQ is to help members get questions about Linux answered

please don't turn LQ into a Linux Quiz
 

It seems that the majority of the newbies like myself are very happy if
they got answers to their questions, and even if some are more or less helpfull, you got more than one replies!
I hope that not the majority of senior members wants LQ turn into a kind
of 1M $ Quiz 'who is best in Linux' without the 1M $ reward.

Well, normally I'm against a rep system as it is often implemented, simply because you can be down rep-ed to near zero within a short period of time by a bunch of spammers. However, from what I've read on the system now implemented here (as I was away when it happened), it might be alright. My only problem with the rep system is negative reps, but I suppose if they must have a comment and only count 50% and are only available to senior members, this may solve the issue. I guess we will see how it turns out. It is also great that people can opt out of the system in case.

@H_TeXMeX_H: have a look at the update from Jeremy here. As you can see, the system is fair and there appears to be no abuse of negrep.

One of the moderators already addressed the issue earlier in this thread by pointing out that only privileged users, "senior members", will be able to give negative ratings. Or something like that (I am not quoting precise words). It sounds good, but I am still skeptical. "Senior members" are not infallible just because they are senior. On the contrary: their seniority usually gives them superior technical knowledge, but there is little correlation between that and the skill set required to answer questions well, which is a skill set very much like "customer support". So, for example, senior members are more likely to assume that the asker knows something that senior member knows, but the asker does not.

I saw this vividly illustrated when I asked a question about deleting and then reinstalling applications (I was trying to avoid having to do this); it turns out the answerer assumed I knew that most (at least all "well-behaved") Linux applications save their configurations in the home directory, so that you can remove and reinstall an application without losing your configurations/settings.

When he finally did mention this, his wording made it clear how impatient he had become, which is entirely inappropriate behavior for a forum that prides itself on being a friendly place for newbies to get help.

That is why, despite all the progressive innovation that LQ has accomplished, little has changed since this issue (of the differing skill sets) was first brought up, in a nascent but still relevant form, back in the 4th century BC by Plato in the Gorgias (where Gorgias claims the rhetorician can explain even what he does not himself understand).

"The majority"? How do you know? Did you do a count? I have seen a great many newbie questions either left unanswered or answered incorrectly. But I have not done a count, I doubt it is a 'majority'; just a noticeable number.

Then there are those which, just like you say, have more than one reply, but most of the replies are wrong! I pity the newbie trying to figure out which answer is correct:(

Hmm, yes, it does seem to be going well.

I never said that senior members are infallible, or that they should have greater power because they have been here longer. Instead, my concern was with new members spamming the rep system with negative reps. I would say that at the very least, being a senior member means that you are not a spammer, and will not negative rep people for no reason. That was my main concern, and I think that it has been dealt with by the rules now in place.

How I know ? I just counted the number of newbies and comments in that thread(Adalin, paparts, robeich), I don't know if this is representative to all the other newbies.
I do agree that a correct answer is best.
But are you sure that a very strict pointing system is reducing the number of not so good or wrong replies ?

Honestly, I could care less about a rep system. With reps, or without reps, does not change how I answer or ask questions. I see people dunking on others left and right about what the majority likes or doesn't like; Why does that matter for a rep system?

This forum's priority should remain what, I assume, has always been: answering questions for those who need it. Adding a rep system would just complicate what is already a great system and a great community.

For those who wish to argue my points: I don't care. This isn't a discussion for me and I have left my feedback.

I used to participate in an online language translation forum which had a good system where you could agree with someone elses posting. The posting which most users agreed with would then be marked as being the 'best solution' unless the OP chose another option as being the best one.

When the OP marked the thread as 'solved' they'd have the chance to indicate which solution worked for them. Long-standing threads which were never marked as solved would show the posting which most agreed on as being the best answer.

The poster with the 'winning' solution would be awarded kudos and points.

This method correlated the scoring accuracy directly to the specific question from the OP and not by giving a general grade to the other posters. Posters may know lots about some things and next-to-nothing about something else. This system also raised the 'historical value' of each thread, making it easier to find a 'right' answer for a new question from an old thread.

BTW, the site I'm talking about is: www.proz.com
if you want to take a look. Their system may have changed, for better or worse, since I last participated there 8-9 years ago.

But that looks like there can only be one poster in a thread that gets thanked. But on a technical forum like this, that just won't work, because it's not like everyone immediately posts complete solutions instantly. It's more gradual, and many posts can be helpful toward reaching the goal.

Thanks for the feedback, gnashley. I'll take a look.

This is something I put on the LQ TODO a while back, so you should see something similar here at some point. The issue that MTK358 brings up is something we need to think about a bit, which is why we haven't implemented it already.

--jeremy

MTK358, when users agree with another poster response, they earn points as well, IIRC.
Jeremy, I think this addresses your concern as well. It really helps make past threads easier to use and more valuable in the future. Cuts down on new threads which cover the 'same old ground' as existing threads.
I'm all for users being able to have pride in having a good reputation or being thanked for their participation. This system just makes it easier to tie the accuracy of a given answer to a the problem at hand.

Occassionaly the OP will choose the wrong answer, but not often. If they
do they might be punished by having points taken away -if they chose a 'wrong' answer as being the best answer, they were probably not phrasing their question correctly, anyway.

I am not an expert on Linux. There are a very very few things I know about the internals of linux. But then now and again I come across a post that has an issue I am familliar with and I try and help this person with his issue. But then again due to the lack of detailed knowledge I may not be able to really help this guy fix his issue. Now the thing here is 'reputatation' is a very strong word for me and to numerically calculate reputation is something I would not really be looking forward to. The simple 'thank you' button was good. But then again, you guys have been here a lot longer than I have and perhaps there is something that I have missed out. If given the option I would definately delete 'reputation' from being displayed in my posts. Hope I have made my position clear on the topic. BTW, repling to a post by Jeremy somehow is very intimidating so please forgive me in case I am not really eplicit.

Actually, I agree, it was a lot simpler, and I think better. Now, things are more complicated, but who knows, maybe it'll work.

to be honest , i appreciated the old "Thanks" system much more.

i think that , a user would only need the raw metrics themselves rather than an arbitrary algorithm to calculate the reputation of a member..

for me , knowing 3 basic things such as Join Date , Post Count and Thank Count would be more than enough to assess the reputation of any member !

i wouldn't need automation for that , that's my thought ;)

cheers

entz, thanks for the feedback. What we're trying to accomplish is something more useful than a simple anecdotal mental summation. As the system matures we'd appreciate any feedback on how we can better accomplish that.

--jeremy

interesting ideal

Thanks for your dedication and all that hard work!

Nice
 

Nice ah

And that is the problem. From what little I have seen of a description of how the system does work or will work (and yes, I read the whole thread referenced at the top of this one), I see no sign of adequate measures against various forms of cheating, especially knocking down reputations unfairly.

That is why though I may still occasionally return here, LQ will no longer be my primary source of Linux information.

Only a very small subset of members have the ability to down rep. From there, there are actually many measures in place to ensure it's not abused. Even with those measures in place, negative rep is something we watch very closely to make sure it's not being abused.

--jeremy

Additionally, negative rep (as a percentage) is continuing to go down as the system gets more usage. It will likely settle at under 1% of usage (and < .3% of rep points) given the current trends.

--jeremy

An additional note: if you see specific cases of abuse or have specific realistic theoretical cases in mind, do let us know. We've tried to address everything possible, but any system can always be improved. Thanks again for the feedback.

--jeremy

Well, for sure I will report real cases of abuse, so far none.

I think this thread is a good example of the system being unintentionally abused. The user really only attacked LQ in one post and they're new to the community. While I didn't appreciate their remark I do not feel the user deserved -10 in rep for it.

Therefore I think it is necessary to implement a negative cap of -2 or -3 per post. If a thousand people randomly decide they don't like something then a user could possibly get -1000 in rep for a silly comment that shouldn't have much weight (mob mentality). Please fix that.

Possibly still allow the user to receive feedback on the post but have it not effect his score. Or just stop users in general from continuing to neg rep.

Thanks for the continued feedback. There are actually some caps in place to prevent mob mentality. The post you linked to has only been downrepped two times, FWIW (and by two members who have never repped the same post before or since).

--jeremy

The -10 was well earned, but like Jeremy says not in one post, in many, search his posts.

Heh yea, just realized...

I got a helpful answer positive rating and under the thread it lists N/A.

How can this happen?