We have decided to implement negative rep on a trial basis. We ask that you not abuse it and go crazy and neg repping anyone who you don't agree with. If it's not being abused then we will implement it permanently.

Please understand that people will have differing opinions on certain issues. Do not abuse this.

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n_A3T0UcAJc/maxresdefault.jpg

(10-22-2015, 05:56 PM)Bengal Dude Wrote: We have decided to implement negative rep on a trial basis. We ask that you not abuse it and go crazy and neg repping anyone who you don't agree with. If it's not being abused then we will implement it permanently.

Please understand that people will have differing opinions on certain issues. Do not abuse this.

Will we be able to see negative rep in the same section?  Don't see this going well, so I negative rep'd you... :)

Good...  I never really used it, and in 8 years, I never received it...  But it's nice to know that I could.  

I can't see this being a good idea. This is going to cause off topic arguments in many more threads.

I've been wrong before and ill be wrong more in the future, but I'd put good money on this thought of mine.

(10-22-2015, 07:12 PM)djs7685 Wrote: I can't see this being a good idea. This is going to cause off topic arguments in many more threads.

This already occurs...without neg rep. As a matter a fact, it's been occurring much more often lately...without neg rep. Grown adults on this board make it a point, on far too many occasions, to purposely carry over arguments...without neg rep. 


The bigger problem, especially of late...is that some posters are testing the rules more and more, and making it increasingly difficult to keeps threads on topic or to keep them from turning personal. 


Neg rep isn't a magic fix, but it at least gives other members a chance to note their displeasure with those who only want to troll, or who continuously side track threads with nonsense. If someone starts abusing this feature, they will stand out immediately, due to rep/comments being public. 


Bottom line...this is a trial run and we'll monitor it and see how it goes.

(10-22-2015, 07:36 PM)Bengalholic Wrote: Grown adults on this board make it a point, on far too many occasions, to purposely carry over arguments...without neg rep. 

This certainly doesnt apply to me because by know means am I lumping myself into the grown adults category, but can you explain what you mean by 'purposely carry over arguments'?  Is the implication that one should not consider past statements / actions of others when discussing / interacting?  That seems like a very difficult task.  Just wondering.

(10-22-2015, 07:44 PM)Vas Deferens Wrote: This certainly doesnt apply to me because by know means am I lumping myself into the grown adults category, but can you explain what you mean by 'purposely carry over arguments'?  Is the implication that one should not consider past statements / actions of others when discussing / interacting?  That seems like a very difficult task.  Just wondering.

Yeah brother, I was referring more to arguments being carried over from one section of the board to another. However, where past arguments/actions are concerned...referring to old opinions/statements is one thing. Constantly using these things in order to make continued personal attacks, or to take threads off topic, is a different thing altogether. 


Our staff has given a tremendous amount of leeway when it comes to the rules, more than many message boards would. But lately, it seems that this is being taken advantage of. While we attempt to make this a place where discussions can happen freely and people can share their opinions...we also can't allow a free-for-all, where there are no rules or perimeters.

Lol if you think this place has "leeway", check out Sherdog or Metalthrone. Not saying there shouldn't be rules here (there should), but there are thousands of message boards with no language filter whatsoever or any enforced rules against fighting.

Anyway, I understand your point that there is a lot of off topic arguing already happens (some by yours truly ), but I said MORE off topic arguing for a reason. I promise that neg rep will cause more harm than it does good. You already have a report button to deal with obvious trolls and people blatantly breaking the rules.

You guys are going to do what you like, it's your board and more power to you, I'm just throwing my opinion out there like anybody else. I just have no clue how you think giving people an outlet to "note their DISPLEASURE" is going to not cause more bickering than that which already occurs. You don't have to agree, but hopefully what I'm saying is making some amount of sense.

A downside is now the amount of positive rep has been reduced, in my case down to +3 from the previous +7 that I was able to give.

(10-22-2015, 09:01 PM)wildcats forever Wrote: A downside is now the amount of positive rep has been reduced, in my case down to +3 from the previous +7 that I was able to give.

Actually, the point issue is separate from the neg rep issue, it's just that the neg rep thing reminded that I had forgotten to do it.



When the board first started and we were trying to get members, I had it set to give more points very early in a member's post activity. Just a tool to get people to be active in the early stages. I always meant to re-adjust it at some point and make it more equitable, but just forgot. For instance, previously you only needed 10 posts to have 5 points. Now that we've grown to almost 900 members and have regular activity, this new point system will more fairly award points as post counts grow.



Sorry for any confusion. The updated version can be found here.

Neg rep is worth it because about once a month I get to see someone have a huge butthurt meltdown over it. I'd imagine it will happen more often than that, but I won't see it when it goes on in JN.

Makes sense, appreciate the clarity.

(10-22-2015, 08:08 PM)Bengalholic Wrote: Yeah brother, I was referring more to arguments being carried over from one section of the board to another. However, where past arguments/actions are concerned...referring to old opinions/statements is one thing. Constantly using these things in order to make continued personal attacks, or to take thread off topic, is a different thing altogether. 


Our staff has given a tremendous amount of leeway when it comes to the rules, more than many message boards would. But lately, it's seem that this is being taken advantage of. While we attempt to make this a place where discussions can happen freely and people can share their opinions...we also can't allow a free-for-all, where there are no rules or perimeters.

Got it.  I will make an attempt to compartmentalize my judgments of others on a sub-forum level.  Makes sense, appreciate the clarity.

Yes! I loved me some negative rep on the old boards. I never used it, and then one day k realized how serious people took that number and I amped up my usage. The butthurt was thick.

This gonna get interesting.

I've never negged anyone and I've only received it once I think. I try to pass out positive rep as much as I can, but if someone I've had a disagreement in the past makes a great point about something, most times I simply won't rep them. That's my 'neg' rep system. Sometimes though, if a great point has been made, I have to give positive rep where it's due, even if it's for someone I'm indifferent to. That's just one way to handle pos/neg rep.

This is such a great community that I hope we can adjust accordingly because I don't wanna see anyone get in trouble using this new feature.

This isn't gonna end well...

(10-22-2015, 10:22 PM)Johnny Cupcakes Wrote: Yes! I loved me some negative rep on the old boards. I never used it, and then one day k realized how serious people took that number and I amped up my usage. The butthurt was thick.

If it wasn't for neg rep. we'd still have GA9. Fun times ......

So, rep on message boards is meant to serve one purpose:
Verifying the validity of a person's opinion as a Bengals fan.

If a person consistently posts coherent, helpful, intelligent and insightful things, his reputation will be high. This helps people to see his opinion and maybe give him your ear even if you disagree, just because he has proven to be a consistently logical and reasonable debater.

The problem came, however, when there's a person who gets a lot of positive reputation for their good posts, but if they had bad posts, you could not ding their reputation.

For example, say someone, when they're sober, is a very coherent and intelligent person. They will receive positive reputation to support this.

However, when they're drunk, or just in a bad mood, they become very angry, hateful and aggressive.

In a system with negative rep, his reputation will reflect that, though he makes good points on occasion, he is not the most reliable or most trustworthy source of information, and debating him may end with him just screaming obscenities.

In a system without negative rep, his reputation will only reflect the good posts he makes, but will not reflect the fact that he can go crazy sometimes.

I personally believe in negative rep. I exercise it when necessary and I believe it does, for one reason or another, encourage people to keep their shit off the message boards.

I think this message board has operated pretty well without it so far, but if anyone remembers the old message boards, we had some terrible people over there. And their reputation allowed you to see that it was negative, and then just know that the rest of the board is on your side and you don't need to argue with them for hours on end.

I am really happy about the implementation of negative reputation on these message boards.

Neg rep shouldn't really be out there or only in a limited capacity. If someone doesn't like/agree with something, then it should be discussed as to "why?", not just a blind hit-and-run number that could be performed out of spite.

(10-23-2015, 09:20 AM)Interceptor Wrote: Neg rep shouldn't really be out there or only in a limited capacity. If someone doesn't like/agree with something, then it should be discussed as to "why?", not just a blind hit-and-run number that could be performed out of spite.

That's pretty much my thoughts on it too. I prefer a discussion if I disagree with someone or if someone has an issue with something that I say. Some people around here already made their snide comments in positive rep messages to others instead of actually confronting the person in the thread or via PM with their issue.

This is going to lead to more bad than it is good. I have no idea how giving people another outlet for negativity is somehow going to cause a positive change. We'll see how it goes though. There's already a report button for "bad" posts, and it has been said in this thread that the negative rep isn't supposed to be there for just something a person disagrees with. Sooooo...what's the actual point of this? If we aren't supposed to use it for disagreeing, and the report button already exists and gets used......

Also, people WILL use it for disagreements. I've had it happen to me plenty of times on the old board. Arguments about sports, politics, and everything else discussed on these boards tend to get heated at times. If we're "adults", as the admins say, people should be able to use the negative reputation feature when it's actually justified and not just for a simple disagreement. That won't happen though, and it's going to lead to a lot of problems.