I think there is a problem with the Rep status.

The click for "Did you find this helpful" should only be used if the posting actually had some useful information.

I see "Likes" on postings that have no useful information what-so-ever. Too many people are treating this like a Facebook "Like". You get all your friends to click "Like" on anything you post. You click on your friends posts in mutual support.

Many of the Rep I see (green boxes) are not believable.
Especially not for the number of posts I see.

If this is what a poster is supposed to use to judge if a response is from a reliable person, it is now broken for that purpose.

The number of posts is easily misused too. A high number of posts could only mean that they like to get into arguments, or that they have alot of time on their hands.

When I craft a response, I spend a considerable time on it and try to tailor it to the posters question. That is not being rewarded in the Rep.

I believe that the "Did you find this useful" should be only for the Original Poster.
At least that would cut down on the "Like" clicks, the argument supporters clicks, and the friend clicks.
Clicks by anyone other than the Original Poster would be reported as "Likes" instead of Rep.

There could also be a few selected monitor persons who have their clicks on "Did you find this useful" to always be recorded as Rep. But is hard to find people who can be completely impartial in the usage of this power. They cannot use it to support one side or other of any argument that breaks out.

I do like checking my rep to see which of my posts others have found helpful and must confess that I do from time to time find myself taken aback by what I see.

The rep feature is used by human beings, and human beings sometimes act in unpredictable and not-very-bright ways. I do not think a system can be designed to satisfy your objections without also turning it into a system that would be unusable and unused in a volunteer forum such as this one.

Beyond that, though, the rep system doesn't count for anything--you don't get a bonus for having high rep or a penalty for having low rep. Consequently, my inclination is be aware of and accept its faults and move along.

1 members found this post helpful.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in <LQ Suggestions & Feedback> and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

I agree but only in part because if the member/OP found it helpful and mark it yes than there is a reward.

Like you; I too spent a good amount of time and effort to bring together a good response to help others.
Sometimes I see that members find it helpful by clicking yes and sometimes members don't click the yes.
-::-This might stem from just wanting a quick fix and having not interest in clicking the yes button.-::-

Our members that have been here for a long time IMO have well earned their reputation points by what they worked at to help others.
That doesn't mean that the members that haven't been here as long are any different. There are tons of successful post's here.

In the end I think it really boils down to one thing. Reputation points or NOT the dedicated member has already achieved success by providing help that works and the OP is satisfied in the end marking the thread SOLVED.

There may be some reasons that a member may not fully be able to do more than click yes. They may not have option to provide feedback or the desire.

I think the way to add feedback is to click on the "Rep" link to the left of the green "rep" boxes. That opens a dialog which allows you to enter text.

I have no idea and no way of testing whether that is restricted to a certain user/number of posts level.

As others have said, it's pretty subjective, in other words, there may be a number of different reasons members give "rep" to other members. Personally, I only give it if I DID find the post to be helpful, but once again, what do you define as "being helpful"?

This may be different for different members, as Frank said, I also use it as a guide to check how "helpful" I may have been.

I would not agree that members in general are "abusing" the Reputation system, so not sure where your coming from there?

Sometimes I think, if anything, some members don't give others enough credit for help provided to other members.

The use of the "Rep" action allows some one to craft a more interactive response over
the generic "Did you find this post helpful?" responses generated by that action?

A particular instance of note is the recent thread about PulseAudio, and the steps needed to restore operation to the legacy ALSA applications. We had trolls that would argue that PulseAudio worked for them, and they would get 3 "Like" clicks. There was no content in those posts that was "helpful", it could only be support for one side of the argument.
The actual posts that had helpful content on what needed to be changed in the ALSA setup to disable the PulseAudio takeover, would only get 1 click.

Clearly something other than "Is this helpful" is going on here when the trolls are getting more Rep than the people trying to help.

If there are people who are going to use those clicks like they do on Facebook, where they support one side or the other, or to support their "popularity", then the I think system should make some effort to isolate the effects they have from the more useful intended usage.
The trolls will achieve a denial-of-service upon the Rep system, even if it is not intentional.

I am finding that I do not trust the Rep system anymore.

I also wonder why my Rep would be a 3, then suddenly be down to 1. I have always tried to make every post helpful and to the point of aiding with the Original posters question.
Why would my Rep go down? What is this measuring, ... popularity, ... how frequently you can post?

the system is flawed.
didn't we know that already.
the only thing i find mildly relevant is the relation between post count, rep and register date. meaning, some people have been here for a looong time, haven't posted much, but received rep for close to 50% of their posts. that earns my respect.

everything else is hot air, more or less.

and yes, including myself.

Agreed, but I wouldn't see the point in adding moderation categories. The limited feedback does help a bit, but then so do regular replies from the original posters (or others sometimes).


I thought about that, too. To a certain extent I agree with that assessment, but then also I recall how help desks used to work, and seem to have worsened in this direction: the short responses are rewarded by the system better. So if you take the time to walk through and debug a challenging question, the reward is much lower than a single, short post. Obviously the latter is best if it can be done, but in many cases a lot of background information must be teased out before a diagnosis made and a solution provided.

You actually considered it worthy of trust in the past?
Why would you do that?

1 members found this post helpful.

I was just considering clicking 'Yes' for the last post, but then I remembered that that's maybe what OP was refering to.
But why not? Helpful doesn't necessarily have to mean "helpful in a technical, computer, linux context".
So there, I did it anyway.

@selfprogrammed, I don't understand what your getting so hung up about, it's not meant to tell you who is the most knowledgeable member here. It's just a guide! Some of the most knowledgeable members here have their "Reputation" disabled, does that mean their not worth listening to? Ah, NO, it does NOT!!

If you don't agree with it, why don't YOU disable yours?

I've given answers that I thought were both good answers/help AND worth some "Reputation", BUT did not get any. I've given "Reputation" to some other members of LQ, more than once, you think they have ever been kind enough to return the favour?? Well, NOPE!

The other point you seem to be missing here is that, and let's say someone has a "Rep" of 200 points, it might only be say 60 points of that 200, where members HAVE clicked the "Yes" next to "Did you find this post helpful?", for example.

Once again, a VERY, VERY, VERY subjective system!

I am very glad that LQ does not support downvoting, but I can quite honestly say that I have never looked at anyone's "reputation," nor even my own (if I have one). I do take notice of posts that other people found "helpful" when I am not terribly familiar myself with the subject-matter being discussed. And, when I find a post to be helpful, I am careful to flag it as such.

Frankly, I would just focus my attention on answering questions, as well as you know how to do, and leave it at that. Because that's what this forum is for. Let the "attaboys" and "attagirls" fall where they may. And, when you're participating on a "social" thread such as F&R Mega, be polite.