All your forum reputation questions and Thank You button questions answered

[Clinton]

To the left of each post you have the poster's profile. You'll see their join date, number of posts etc.

You'll also see
1. A green box or boxes
2. Thanks:
3. Thanked x times in x posts
4. Rep power

I'm going to attempt to explain all that.

There are two ways you can show someone your appreciation for a post you liked or that was useful to you. 1) You can click the Thank You link to say thanks and 2) You can click the star below their post and leave them "reputation".

Thank Yous

The Thank You is a quick way of showing appreciation. In other forums people post just to say thank you. On these boards such a post would be considered fluff so please click on the Thank You link just below their post to thank a particular poster.

If you can't see the Thank You link below posts then either you are a new member and haven't acquired that privilege yet ... or you've used up all your Thank Yous for the day and need to wait till tomorrow.

The Thanks: line shows how many thanks a poster has left in total. The "Thanked X times in X posts" is exactly what it looks like. It tells you how many times a poster has been thanked. Someone with just one post could have acquired thanks from several different members and his record could show: Thanked 25 times in 1 post

Thank Yous left are publicly visible just below the post that users have left thanks for ...as you'll probably see at the bottom of this post in due course.

Reputation:

This is a bit trickier. There are two aspects to it - "reputation" and "reputation power". The former is the reputation points the user has been given, the latter is his/her ability to give reputation points i.e. how many points they give others when they rep somebody.

"Reputation" is the sum total of the reputation points you've received. Each time someone reps you your reputation score goes up by x points (depending on who it was who repped you and what their rep power is). "Reputation" is denoted by green boxes. You start with one green box and for every 100 reputation points you're given you gain one new green box in the initial stages. Getting new green boxes gets a bit more difficult once you've accumulated a few. You never know a user's exact reputation. You'll only know when he clears the next threshold to the getting another green box.

Rep power is the number of reputation points a user gives each time they rep someone. Your rep power increases based on how many posts you have, the age of your account etc. So, obviously, increasing your rep power is something you can do yourself, but your "reputation" increases only when someone reps you.

<added on April 30, 2012>Following a poll in the VIP Lounge in April 2012, I've decided to make a change to rep power. Previously, when you awarded someone reputation, the number of points you gave them was equal to your rep power. Now there's a cap at 15. The points you awarded now will be the same as your rep power till you reach 15. After that even though your publicly visible rep power increases, you'll still be awarding only 15 points when you rep someone. This is so "high rep power members" can feel more free to award rep and use the reputation system.</added>

[[OLD TEXT - Consider this now deleted: I've artificially frozen my own "reputation power" at 10 as it was too high relative to everyone else. I don't have a lot of "reputation" (just one green box at present) because I don't get repped often and when I do get repped it's by people who don't have a lot of rep power. Andy and hooperman are the only ones with two bars at present and that's because they've had a few reps from me - at 10 points a time. One or two others, like benitez17, are close behind them. I expect I will trail everybody else on this for a long while (which is fine. Don't rep me just to get my score up! )]]

When you click the star you're giving the poster reputation points. This does not diminish anything you've already got - neither your "reputation" nor "reputation power" is affected when you rep others.

Reputation is private. If you rep a user for his post other members wouldn't know about it, but that user's rep score would go up and he'd get notified.

How to use Thank Yous and Reputation Points:
No rules. You can thank people using either method. One's public, the other private. Asking for Thank Yous and Reps is obviously not in the spirit of the game.

Any questions?

[kmander]

Seems like duplication to me - wouldn't it just be simpler and still comprehensive if reputation was removed?

[akirk]

Added thanks as you refer to it in your post, so thought it would help demonstrate!

This does make sense - if people use it in the same way throughout...
Thanks - when you appreciate the post someone has made
Reputation / star when the post shows skill / knowledge / expertise...

then the Thanks would show how helpful they are and the reputation would show their skill - someone could be thick but helpful (low rep / high thanks) or very brainy but grumpy (high rep / low thanks) or anywhere in-between.

of course if people don't use it in that way, then no-one will really know what it actually is being used for and therefore what it really stands for...

Alasdair

[Kay]

...then the Thanks would show how helpful they are and the reputation would show their skill - someone could be thick but helpful (low rep / high thanks) or very brainy but grumpy (high rep / low thanks) or anywhere in-between.

That is hilarious!

Please don't thank me any more - give me rep! I'd rather be perceived as brainy and grumpy than thick and helpful.

[Kay]

What happens if you accidentally "thank" a post that you didn't mean to? ( I just did and I don't see a way to undo it.)

[akirk]

Good question - the older version of vBulletin the button changed to allow you to undo it... but can't see that here... mmm maybe only mods can...

Alasdair

[Clinton]

Keith, I could turn reputation off, but I was hoping people would use it more rather than less. As Alasdair pointed out in a different thread, the number of green buttons next to posts could serve as an indication to the casual visitor.

Kay, I don't believe you can though I do seem to have the power to remove Thank Yous.

This does make sense - if people use it in the same way throughout...
Thanks - when you appreciate the post someone has made
Reputation / star when the post shows skill / knowledge / expertise......
of course if people don't use it in that way, then no-one will really know what it actually is being used for and therefore what it really stands for...

It does seem an ordered way to do it, but I can't see it happening in practice. People will use the Thank You because it's easier. And use the rep when they really appreciate a post or when they don't want others to know they've credited the poster.

[Kay]

No offence meant to Keith, but my finger slipped and I accidentally thanked him for suggesting removing reputation. I did look for the undo button.

I still think that rep is a Good Thing if it's related to how people perceive your integrity.

[Clinton]

If I can persuade people to leave rep more often then those green bars will grow.

Such a quick visual indicator does help visitors but it also benefits posters as their contributions to the forum and their trust level is summarised in the green bars. This rep would attract people to contact them for the services they offer, would serve to motivate visitors to click their signature links etc.

[kmander]

Clinton, are you using the 'Post Thank You Hack'? If so, there apparently is an option to allow users to remove a thank you.

Keith, I could turn reputation off, but I was hoping people would use it more rather than less. As Alasdair pointed out in a different thread, the number of green buttons next to posts could serve as an indication to the casual visitor.

Fair enough. Unless, there's an option to visualise the number of thanks?