Rep Points.

[christina>you]

I don't necessarily like the rep system. I get bad reps for no reason... such as playing on the word games, and I don't even know who gave them to me. =/

[John A]

I've only ever been repped down once. I guess it's due to the fact that I'm so nice and polite to everyone, never complain, and agree with just about anybody.

But seriously, I don't think a system showing who's sending the bad rep your way would be necessarily bad. The only negative thing I could see potentially is that if I give negative reputation to a member (who deserves it, by all means), then I'd be afraid that they being an idiot, would come back and try to get me, starting a "rep war".

[christina>you]

true....

[KevinADC]

Maybe its an age difference thing, me being 50 years old and you being much younger. But why do you even care that you got a bad rep in the word game forum? If I were to ever paticipate in that forum and someone actually took the time to bad rep me I think I would laugh. Even if someone bad rep'd me for no good reason in a programming forum and I actually noticed, I would be ammused. I guess you younger members take that stuff seriously?

[KevinADC]

Jeez christina>you, you have 2100+ posts in like 2 months? I'm speechless.

[Infarction]

Jeez christina>you, you have 2100+ posts in like 2 months? I'm speechless.

Join the club. Officer positions still available, for a limited time only.

Watch, I'll get more -rep for this too :icon_rolleyes:

[~s.o.s~]

Watch, I'll get more -rep for this too

:D

I guess you would be more than happy to get the name of repper...

[jbennet]

I gave you some +rep.

I like rep. It gives you something to aim for (as do the stars and poster titles).<grumble> I have got 8 bad rep blocks in a week :( - thats over half my total rep gone due to not typing preoperly. Well now im going to try harder to type nicely.</grumble>

[christina>you]

I gave you some +rep.

I like rep. It gives you something to aim for (as do the stars and poster titles).<grumble> I have got 8 bad rep blocks in a week :( - thats over half my total rep gone due to not typing preoperly. Well now im going to try harder to type nicely.</grumble>

Thanks for the rep :) But right after you, someone gave me another bad rep on this thread and told me to stop whining. That's pretty low. People are dumb.

[christina>you]

Jeez christina>you, you have 2100+ posts in like 2 months? I'm speechless.

What can I say? I don't have a life ;)

[jbennet]

Well I'm actually trying to type nicely now so that I get more good rep and less bad ones :)

[~s.o.s~]

Is it just me or has there being a real increase in the rep activity recently? ;-)

[jbennet]

Yes there has. I had 60 since 2005 and in the last 3 months its gone up to nearly 200

[Infarction]

Is it just me or has there being a real increase in the rep activity recently? ;-)

What with it being the talk of the town, yeah but that's to be expected.

[joshSCH]

Jeez christina>you, you have 2100+ posts in like 2 months? I'm speechless.

It's those word games that she plays!;) lol.. I'm no1 to talk about that though.

But seriously, I think something should be changed about the rep system.. It has a specific purpose, and people abuse it way too often. I think it would be beneficial for people's names to be posted when they rep. For one, it would stop people from abusing the system. If you neg. rep someone for a stupid reason, you will be neg. repped back. But on the same token, if the neg. rep is deserved, I don't think there will be a rep war. If some1 neg. repped me for a good reason, I would not be angry or neg. rep them back.

[Rashakil Fol]

You and I might be robots who never react emotionally towards people's behavior, but a large enough proportion of people respond with verbal violence when others damage their fake self-esteem, because they take their lives too seriously. Wars between people who care about the number in their Reputation column are already tempered by the need to "spread around" points.

[KevinADC]

It's those word games that she plays!;) lol.. I'm no1 to talk about that though.

But seriously, I think something should be changed about the rep system.. It has a specific purpose, and people abuse it way too often. I think it would be beneficial for people's names to be posted when they rep. For one, it would stop people from abusing the system. If you neg. rep someone for a stupid reason, you will be neg. repped back. But on the same token, if the neg. rep is deserved, I don't think there will be a rep war. If some1 neg. repped me for a good reason, I would not be angry or neg. rep them back.

First, I think anyone that takes rep seriousy needs to take a break from their computer.

Daniweb seems to have a group of members that is here more for the entertainment value and less the webdev stuff. Those members will abuse, and I use that word loosely, the rep system, seeing it as just part of the fun and games. I call it the myspace crowd for lack of a better description.

[tgreer]

The trend of Daniweb attracting more and more of the myspace crowd these days should be a serious wake-up call.

[davidcairns]

Personally I tend to agree with Kevin, though perhaps not so vehemently :) Rep is something you can only truly collect with personal experience and discussion. Some random rep gained from one or two posts will never convince me that someone is more or less knowledgable, only through my own discussions will I garner that information.

As for the MySpace crowd, I got a PM from one of them saying "your from London, cool". Didn't even have a question to ask. Couldn't have been more than 12.

[tgreer]

Obviously we're faced with a changing demographic. In terms of the success of the forum as a business, that might not be a bad thing (this is the social networking crowd, after all). But if the goal is to be a top-notch technical site for working developers, then we're heading in the wrong direction. It's like turning a university into a shopping mall.

[Infarction]

Obviously we're faced with a changing demographic. In terms of the success of the forum as a business, that might not be a bad thing (this is the social networking crowd, after all). But if the goal is to be a top-notch technical site for working developers, then we're heading in the wrong direction. It's like turning a university into a shopping mall.

Quoted for truth.

[tgreer]

Thanks, but since posting that I've wondered if it really is "obviously" that way, or simply seems that way because of a self-imposed curtailment of my own site activity. Are the Feedback and Geek's Lounge sections an accurate cross-section? Or is there high-quality, technical activity here in places I'm no longer looking?

In any case, ditching the Geeks Lounge would certainly raise the signal-to-noise ratio, but it might be at cross-purposes to the site's goals. I'm no longer a moderator so can't see the behind-the-scenes conversations, but I've not known Dani to do things randomly or without closely monitoring the results. I have to conclude that the influx of the "myspace crowd" (thank you for that phrase, Kevin) is intentional. Quantity vs. Quality?

[jbennet]

Maybe it would be best to combine geeks lounge and coffee house into one board just for oof topic stuff.

[joshSCH]

There are many people who help other members with IT problems, and who also enjoy the geek's lounge as a 'break' from all the troubleshooting. I personally became a member a long time ago for help with java.. It wasn't until 2-3 weeks ago that I have actually been an active Daniweb member. I go through and help people troubleshoot vista, xp, and hardware problems the best that I can... But I also enjoy the games and such that the geek's lounge offers.

I haven't seen any of this 'myspace' crowd that you talk about.. perhaps members are getting younger and younger.. but thats no reason to complain..

[Infarction]

Maybe it would be best to combine geeks lounge and coffee house into one board just for oof topic stuff.

That makes no sense. GL is a subset of CH, and it's split very logically. The idea of splitting the truely random threads from serious discussion threads is interesting though.

I haven't seen any of this 'myspace' crowd that you talk about.. perhaps members are getting younger and younger.. but thats no reason to complain..

Younger and younger correlates to less mature, easier to distract, and less emphasis on appearance. I would assume that those largely contradict the image that Dani has been putting together over the years.

[joshSCH]

Younger and younger correlates to less mature, easier to distract, and less emphasis on appearance. I would assume that those largely contradict the image that Dani has been putting together over the years.

Not necessarily. I mean, sure theres tons of immature members, but can they really be stopped? Theres nothing that anyone can do to stop immature people from registering here (or I'm sure it would have already been implemented).

whoa, whats up with the website change? It looks cool, but the words are really small now..

[Infarction]

Not necessarily. I mean, sure theres tons of immature members, but can they really be stopped? Theres nothing that anyone can do to stop immature people from registering here (or I'm sure it would have already been implemented).

True, they can't be stopped. But if they're not interested, they'll leave. Or they'll stir up trouble and be forced to leave.

whoa, whats up with the website change? It looks cool, but the words are really small now..

Heh, time for a new thread :icon_wink:

[tgreer]

I haven't seen any of this 'myspace' crowd that you talk about.. perhaps members are getting younger and younger.. but thats no reason to complain..

You. Christina. Jbennet. Age isn't the issue. The issues: the flood of useless posts. Horrible typing/grammar. Starting every sentence with "lol" and ending it with a smiley. Daniweb used to be typified by highly-qualified posters who took pride in crafting very knowledgable answers to programming and technical questions. Those responses attracted other like-minded people, and so we had a growing core of technical professionals.

Now we're typified by users who care more about reputation points, user titles, gold stars, and post count.

Not too long ago, we had a staff that would ruthlessly maintain quality... lemurexplosion would have been infracted into oblivion long ago (and rightly so). Now we don't seem to have any standards. We have a friendlier, happier Daniweb, that's for sure, but I think the quality has deteriorated.

[joshSCH]

You. Christina. Jbennet. Age isn't the issue. The issues: the flood of useless posts. Horrible typing/grammar. Starting every sentence with "lol" and ending it with a smiley. Daniweb used to be typified by highly-qualified posters who took pride in crafting very knowledgable answers to programming and technical questions. Those responses attracted other like-minded people, and so we had a growing core of technical professionals.

Now we're typified by users who care more about reputation points, user titles, gold stars, and post count.

Not too long ago, we had a staff that would ruthlessly maintain quality... lemurexplosion would have been infracted into oblivion long ago (and rightly so). Now we don't seem to have any standards. We have a friendlier, happier Daniweb, that's for sure, but I think the quality has deteriorated.

Why do you attack us?

I don't have horrible grammar/typing skills.. Whats wrong with starting sentences with 'lol' or not using 'correct' grammar anyway? The purpose of language is communication.. and as long as people can read and understand what you are typing then 'correct' grammar is trivial

As for "knowledgeable answers to programming and technical questions"- I have had years of experience with PCs (maybe not as much as the rest of yall..). I am A+ certified, I have built many computers, I am working on my Net+ certification, I have extensive knowledge in Microsoft OS, and I was even a Vista beta tester... I have read many books and taken many classes in the area of computer science and computer technology. I scored a 5 on the Computer Science A AP exam.. I am attending one of the best universities in the entire U.S. next year... So yea, I'd consider myself a knowledgeable Daniweb member. I may not be as wise or experienced as most, but I am adept and certainly qualified enough to post on daniweb.

And again, I don't necessarily care about posts and reputation.. I just think both systems could be modified to better rank daniweb members.

[John A]

You. Christina. Jbennet. Age isn't the issue. The issues: the flood of useless posts. Horrible typing/grammar. Starting every sentence with "lol" and ending it with a smiley. Daniweb used to be typified by highly-qualified posters who took pride in crafting very knowledgable answers to programming and technical questions. Those responses attracted other like-minded people, and so we had a growing core of technical professionals.

I agree, I've been noticing a flood of users who only care about chatting in the Geek's Lounge. 90% of these users are under the age of 20 (just a guess, but not that far off). I haven't been seeing a huge number of new users that have the technical knowledge to become a potential moderator candidate.

While we're talking about quality control, how about this thread? Not a bad post, but I find it hard to believe that it's an essential sticky. Yes, it's necessary for users to give complete information on the problem, however I rather doubt a sticky will make our newbies that much better. Just look at the number of people who use code tags!

Not too long ago, we had a staff that would ruthlessly maintain quality... lemurexplosion would have been infracted into oblivion long ago (and rightly so). Now we don't seem to have any standards. We have a friendlier, happier Daniweb, that's for sure, but I think the quality has deteriorated.

I do have to comment that this isn't entirely Dani's or the administration's fault, a number of good moderators quit recently, many of which were as you said, worked ruthlessly to maintain quality. A few like yourself left because of IntelliTXT, true, however I think the majority of the quality moderators left for other reasons. Now it should be the administration's goal to seek out other good, quality members that will work to maintain a higher quality standard here at DaniWeb.