by Masterminor » 09 Jul 2015, 08:22
I'm not sure about this idea, some people might give negative rep just to screw over other members they don't like, not just rep-wise but also coin-wise. People also give rep for not understanding a good post. True that the rep could be undone by someone who does understand a post, but the 1 FC lost is forever gone because you do not gain FC with rep.
I have only ever been negative rep'd by people who either don't agree with me and another guy who's name I forget who honestly was legitimately trying to be rude. I only asked how I can verify a PayPal account as a minor in the US. But I can't do it, i got a negative rep with a comment telling me to just use unverified. With this rule it would have cost me 1 FC for someone to be an unhelpful smart mouth. It doesn't sound like a huge deal but if you are unjustly negative rep'd multiple times then it grows to be a problem.
I learned small things become big things if you let them. So I have some suggestions, instead of automatic deductions for negative rep, have the post put under review to see if the rep and deduction are actually deserved. If not, remove negative rep and leave FC amount alone. This will attempt to prevent undeserved punishment to members for their protection. You can allow both members to tell their side of it too if you want to take it that far.
So that each member can learn to be better posters, or in some cases better readers, or in some cases nicer, more helpful people. In the very least I suggest putting negative rep'd posts for mod review if you don't go ad far as bringing the poster and rep-er into it for discussion.
To those who don't agree, I see it like this, people only spam this forum to make money and promote their stuff. People post because it gives them the power to make money. Before this rule I only saw negative rep for three reasons: the one giving rep obviously misread the actually not terrible post, legitimate spam, and to either make a jerkish smart comment or downvote one. Now after this rule is implemented, negative rep has the power to do more then just be on your permanent record.
Now you personally can affect how others get paid by going to their profiles and downvoting their posts for either a stupid reason or none at all. I guarantee you people will do this juat to hurt the earning of other members they don't like or for revenge on members who got them in trouble, or as revenge for negative reping their post first. This can and will all happen if allowed and unchecked. The forum will be a giant game of negative rep tag.
Now that is not to say negative FC for negative rep is a bad idea, It's not. But it can only be good if controlled. I also believe that is only fair to nake the opposite true as well, +1 FC for positive rep, also monitored for legitimacy. This can be done by making comments/explanation required to give rep.
Thoughts?