I think it would be a good idea to add a Reputation or Karma plug-in to this forum.

I have been here a bit now, and have come to see who is who, but when I was new it was tough.

Also in the marketplace i seen a 75 page or so thread on who is trusted... the plugin would eleminate the need for that (really hard to get a real idea of someones karma from such a long thread too )

I would be really nice to be able to click a "+1" button on someones post rather then adding a useless reply to comfirm the exact same thing said again which i see often and am prolly guilty of myself.

ThinkPads.com is not a popularity contest.

Cheers,

Bill B.

I don't think a full reputation plug-in would be necessary, but something similar to this concept would be a nice feature for the marketplace. Is something like this doable for phpBB?

I agree with you Bill, I have seen several forums where "Rep" is used, and it turns more into a contest than.. a forum. Generally getting a second opinion and discussing the matter is a better idea than looking at someone's rep anyways. Think about it, one good write-up and a person gets a ton of rep. Not the best system to go by.

Most of the plugins are forum wide from what I've seen, but with phpBB ANYTHING is plausible

In my experience on this forum, if someone knows their stuff, eventually you get to recognize them - one of the best parts of this forum is that it is designed and functions to help people and to expand your knowledge - if you know something, you share it. If you don't know something, you ask and other people share their knowledge, and it is a cycle, everyone benifits from it. IMHO, the reputation would cause more pointless repeat threads, where when someone posts something, people would answer just for the rep points - they would not show the poster more effective methods of finding the answers (i.e. searching). I think the current system works well, where individuals demonstrate what they know, and other people learn from their past posts how accurate and dependable their information is.

Jack

A few years ago I was a moderator on another forum (TechSpot).
When they started this Karma-crap, things went so far out of hand because of different opinions, that I resigned and left that forum. You received negative Karma for agreeing with another 'negative' poster.... Oh happy days!
Whichever way you look at it, Bill Bolton pointed it out very clearly, and I agree.

I'm really not a fan of the whole "reputation points" thing.

In my experience on other forums, that rapidly leads to posts ending with "Remember to rep if you ________!!!!" and "Rep for more _________".

Basically, it's a great way to turn forum posts into infomercials -- something that can only be prevented with a massive increase in the moderator workload.