Just stick this one in the suggestion box.

A week or so ago, I turned off reputation in my profile, because I decided I was a grown-up and didn't need to display rep points in the sidebar to every post. Then I discovered that I couldn't view rep points myself.

I do check rep points, because I want to know what posts I've made that others have chosen to mark as helpful.

I think it would be nice if the public display of rep points could be turned off, but user could still be allowed see the "Reputation" when he or she viewed his or her profile.

As I said, a suggestion for the suggestion box and not a big deal.

Thanks for the suggestion. When you disable to reputation system you are opting out of the system completely. We did this based on feedback and have no plan to change that at this time, although as always additional feedback is welcome.

--jeremy

For the record I second the suggestion of "hidden reputation". i like b{ing given reputation points because it lets me know I've helped but I do feel vain "showing them off".

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I will admit that hearing that frankbell turned them off and then back on again at least didn't reset them to zero is one of those morbid curiosities I had about the topic.

I'll also admit to some form of Gollum tendency, towards "My Precious" rep points. That being just general human psychology

Meanwhile the system is what it always has been from my view in LQ, (Back to 2011 that is) and so I'd rather not see the system change in any form.

Also have stated quite a few times that other sites systems where they have downvotes are just horrific in my opinion.

A final thought actually is that I use reputation more as a moderator by way of "giving". I sometimes stay out of thread discussions; however for all I view, whether I'm in or out of the discussion, if I feel a member has done very well by the OP or the continued info in the thread I try to remember to award some reputation for their answers. (Well, at least in Newbie, I should pay more attention to Server ... that forum nearly runs itself, but doesn't mean it doesn't have traffic.)

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+1
I also like to see when reputation is added to one of my posts, but I don't find the sum of "points" to be useful at all, and would definitely make use of an option to make just that part of the reputation system go away.

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Jeremy, thanks for the response.

"Reputation" is also unimportant to me: I know well enough who knows what they're talking about.

"Found this post helpful" is important and it would be nice both to encourage its use and to be able to search by it. It is beneficial to know that someone else "seconds the motion."

But, "downvoting, in any form whatsoever," should never be supported on LQ. I don't want other responders to be able to "piss in anyone's pool," nor to subtract from a post's "helpful count." (To me, positive feedback is useful; negative feedback is both unhelpful and anti-social.)

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I agree completely.

I agree with sundialsvcs and 273 about downvoting. It opens the door to pettiness and reprisal, but I think that battle has already been fought and decided here at LQ.

I must say, I am occasionally taken aback by which of my posts get marked for "rep points," but I reckon that, over the long term, it sort of evens out.

I know that I've made off-the-mark suggestions or answers; the continuing discussion informs me of that. I also know that the "Did you find this post helpful" click is hardly an end all and be all, but, at a forum designed for helping persons, any feedback is welcome.

Well, for example, I happen to sometimes enjoy geocaching. When I'm in an unfamiliar area, I might search for something that has "at least so-many 'favorite points.'" The rationale being that, if someone else thought the cache was good, it might be fun to go looking for.

If given the opportunity to speak negatively about a geocache, undoubtedly some people would spend far too much time doing exactly that. Likewise, if they could "water down" a favorite-point count, they would do that, too. But, neither of these would actually help me narrow my search. (They would only inform me about the petty-politics of the neighborhood.)

So, the site provides (and, allows you to search against) what is really useful: "the number of people who favored this particular cache."

Likewise, when I'm looking for an existing answer in a subject-area that I'm not familiar with, the fact that someone else "found this post helpful" is valuable information to me. I'd naturally sort my answer-list by favorite-point count and start from the top.