Reputation System: agree/disagree or approve/disapprove or ???

As always, you can't please everyone. Some people like the rep system, some hate it, some just use it to rep-- Computer every chance I..err, they get.

Anyhow, I stated in another thread how I thought it was odd that the popup for rep says approve/disapprove while the actual comments in the thread say agree/disagree. I believe that most people are using it as an agree/disagree system (since that's what they see) and that's why funny and/or random threads/posters get a lot a lot of rep (and most of that is in the Lounge).

Anyhow, the admins are willing to change the wording if the community thinks it's warranted. I think that rather than an agree/disagree system (we already have replies for that, duh), it should be more of a "contributed to the community" or "detracted from the community" type of rating. Did the user do something or post something that helps build either the Dev Shed or {forum topic} community or not?

That may not be the best wording for it, so I'm putting the question out there for discussion. Also, maybe it's too late or just not worth bothering with, so reply with your vote for that if that's the case, also.

Okay, discuss.

---John Holmes...

How bout in the popup, just have the two checkboxes with 'Good
post' and 'Bad post', then in the actual thread, instead of saying
'[username] agrees!', just say 'Comments on this post from:' and
for each comment, just have '[username] : '

I prefer approve / disapprove but it sounds rather grandmotherly ('Simon, I disapprove of your actions today').

Maybe make it 'yes' / 'no':
Simon: 'yes' - <explain>
Simon: 'no' - <explain>

Alternatively, maybe putting a comment in the pop up window about how to use it appropriately would be best.

I suppose you could go the slashdot route and have: informative, funny (which doesn't count as much), troll, flamebait etc.

--Simon

I know what you're saying, John, and I agree (er, approve)....

I do like the approve/disapprove wording better. Or maybe just make it a good/bad rating?


btw, darn you simon, getting a fifth green square

I still think approve and disapprove are too 'granny like'.

I think "Positive post" and "Negative post" would be better? positive as in good, funny, informative, helpful. negative as in stupid, trolling, spam, etc.

JMO,
comp

Maybe you could theme it?

eg: 80's TV style:
agree: Mr T says Simon agrees!
disagree: What you talking 'bout, Willis?

Um. ok, I probably need some sleep.

Positive/Negative sounds good. Or perhaps, taking it to a version I used to use on a different board where only Mods/Admins can and take rep. On the other board it was called an Award System, where constructive or outstanding posts were given awards, and negative posts were given warnings.
I liked that system because it kept people who just felt like being stupid, or people who don't understand how the system works, from using it. When everyone is allowed, you get some really retarded rep++'s and rep--'s.
That's just my opinion though.

I do think it would be a good idea (not sure if it's easy to do though), to have a third reputation choice for 'funny' which doesn't give as many reputation points (say half).

A lot of my up-reps have come from one-line funnies rather than insightful answers and I get a lot of agrees just because I made someone laugh.

--Simon

Yeah, see I think a rep++ should be because of something that contributed to the forum, or helped a user.
Don't get me wrong I love funny one liners, and I love those great funny posts...but I don't think that's what deserves rep ups.

In my mind when you see a user with a high reputation it means that user is extremely helpful and has good advice, advice you'd be safe to follow and trust. That they know what they're talking about, are an overal positive force on the forum. Not that they're funny characters.

One other thing I was thinking about was that I think it would be cool to have a different way to display rep, not just in a few green boxes :P I think it should look a little better, or be better distinguisable. Either have extremely hard to obtain pips (something a little more flashy than a green box, like a star or somethig...i don't know :P ) or points (such as an award system). Or have easier to obtain, high numbers, like a post count.

Because if someone with 500 rep points only has like 5 boxes and someone with 450 rep points has 5 boxes then it's hard to distingish. Instead you could either say Rep: 500 or whatever.

I'm not sure if I'm making any sense, but those are just some thoughts :P

maybe the belt system would work better for reputation rather than post count?