Forum Usage Curiosity

[Kjallstrom]

I was wondering how many of you use the "reputation" buttons on forum posts, rate threads, report posts, that sort of thing... it seems like most threads (even the popular ones) have no rating, so it seems like folks aren't using those features. Do you like that kind of metacommunity stuff?

[tommarrow]

truthfully I forget that they are there most of the time. When I remember I will rate a post. If the poster is a link to a virus or porn site I will report it and give a neg review.

[arislyn]

I'm the same way. I forget unless it's a spam/porn post, in which case it gets negative rep.

[Pocketwolf]

I never remember to rate threads (and honestly I usually don't even when it's more obvious as in some other forums - it's hard to rate an entire thread when some people are idiots and some are not), but I do give reputation when stuff stands out as being particularly noteworthy.

Also, an idea... a few forums I've been on allow you to give only positive rep, which I suppose fits in with the whole "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything". It tends to bring the community closer together, putting the focus more on supporting others - and it helps to weed out the people who consistently offer nothing but harsh criticism, inappropriate remarks, or insults, as without the negative rep ability they are forced to voice their opinions instead, which usually gets them banned.

[Reusol]

i do sometimes...

[EvilAerosolCan]

I only vote up truly worthy posts. I've never voted any posts down. Spam posts only get a "reported" from me.

[Retodon8]

I have two posts with a neutral vote.
I wonder if that means one person forgot to pick to vote up or down (if that's possible), or if there were two opposing voters.
I'm not sure how that works exactly.

If a post is truly good (for instance a good feature suggestion), I'll vote up.
If it's just a run of the mill post, I don't vote.
If a post is really bad (spamming random characters to boast post count, randomly insulting people, things you really shouldn't be doing), I'll vote down, but luckily that doesn't usually happen.

How useful is this system anyway?
Some of the old GuildCafe members acquired quite a decent positive rating already (not saying they didn't earn it), whereas it seems the system isn't used a whole lot by all the newbies much at all, so nobody gets many good ratings.

As for rating threads; I'm with Pocketwolf in that it can be hard to rate an entire thread.
The Poll: Are you a boy or a girl? thread started out nice enough, but I really didn't like how some felt the need to enforce the male-gamer-talking-about-female-gamer stereotype.

[Sensational]

Originally Posted by Retodon8

How useful is this system anyway?
Some of the old GuildCafe members acquired quite a decent positive rating already (not saying they didn't earn it), whereas it seems the system isn't used a whole lot by all the newbies much at all, so nobody gets many good ratings.
.

From what I can tell it seems to be in use as much now as it has always been.

[Retodon8]

Well, then you must have posted a lot of good posts.

[Jaraj]

Normally I rep the post not the thread