Where do we want to go with Reputation Levels?

julian

if the community decides a user is a spammer(ie flags that user x times or clicks 'spam' x times) that user gets banned/deleted. Obviously this brings in other problems, like fake users flagging people to ban them I guess that power should be given to users with reputation > y.

Good point, but this gets me thinking about the future of the reputation plugin. My original vision was to do away with "mods" as a distinct subset of users, and have privilege levels that users can access (e.g. Over 1000 rep? Now you can moderate forums). This was the original reason why we have display_moderator_tools and thread_tools "permissions" in the topic data. It was implemented way back in the pre v0.1.0 days, and hasn't seen much use since, mostly because the user demand for more fine-grained access controls was just so strong.

By v0.2.0, I believe we had moderators
By v0.3.0, we had a working privileges system
As of 0.5.0, we'll have a more fine-grained privileges system

So, sure, we can add in the capability to have users ban other users upon a set number of flags, but prior to this, I was even thinking of removing the rep level system altogether (just keeping "rep" as a cosmetic/aesthetic counter).

Xiph

In order to prevent people from registering loads of accounts just to get someone to Mod status, you might also want prevent people with < x reputation from giving others reputation. Or, maybe a bit more elegant, not count their upvotes and downvotes towards people's reputation until they have at least x reputation themselves.

? Offline

I'd love to have the rep system remain and even expand.

For almost four years, I was a mod on a StackExchange site. Rep points keep people addicted to the forum! Badges are cool, especially at first, but relative rankings keep people participating. Newbies see that they're getting 20-30 points a day, estimate that they can rise up in the ranks with continued participation, and blammo you have a popular forum.

EDIT: I believe that forum had around four "trust" levels, plus the super admin. So not just one level of mods, but four levels based on rep cutoffs.

a_5mith

I guess it depends on each individual use case and how an admin copes until someone has > x rep. I have a team of people that help out, whom I also give global mod status to. Could you not refactor it into the permission system as a separate option? So you could either define a mod and their permissions, or they earn it. Something like that.

julian

Yes, all that is possible... we're just at a crossroads, either we remove the rep cutoff system, or go all out and integrate it everywhere. It depends on the direction we want to go.

A concern is that rep levels are more difficult to manage on a per-category basis. At the moment, you can't set a rule like "users with > 200 points on the General Discussion category get mod powers"... it's forum-wide.

a_5mith

@julian well I'm surprised this isn't a poll. but I can see where you're coming from, I think being repped / negged(?) should do something in the long run, otherwise there's no point in using it. But mod status may be a bit much for some admins to just give out without fully looking into who it should go to.

Definitely a tough one.

Xiph

@a_5mith said:

But mod status may be a bit much for some admins to just give out without fully looking into who it should go to.

An alternative would be to move the user to an arbitrary group when a certain level of reputation has been acquired. This arbitrary group could still be Mod, but it would also allow for the relatively common "New Members" group that has several restrictions which users are placed in until they have at least a certain amount of something. (usually posts or likes or in this case reputation). Alternatively, you could also require an admin/existing mod to review the promotion before it is executed.

@julian: Having multiple margins for pro/demotion would also be neat. For example, > x rep = "Assistant" rank, > y rep = Mod rank, < z rep = the "Enjoy your increased flood delay timer" rank

Huggy

@julian

Hey guys

Has there been any work on this? I like the ideas presented here.

What I have been searching for is where is the rep timer, just started a new forum and transfering people in from facebook and getting some complaints about there being a timer limit on replies.

Now I was thinking turn the rep system off people will still gain votes and then back on later, but doing that turns voting off, but I think this is a very important part of any community, to see who talking shite or not!

So for now can I do a hack on the timer?

Thanks

Dave

pichalite

@Dave-Huggy-Jones ACP -> Settings -> Post

This page has time limits for posts, may be that's what you are looking for?

Huggy

@pichalite

Thank you!