Welcoming Newbies With Bad Rep... :/

[SubMissChievous]

Yes kids this is yet another thread about rep… Fun uh? No not really…

I wasn’t quite sure where I wanted to post this at first, I thought about bringing this to other staff members privately but finally chose to make this public as I see there seems to be quite a lot of people who are getting increasingly obsessed with our reputation system (which, again, is only an extra feature here…)

Here’s my main concern: the last few days I have checked the reputation of several newbies. People who have been here for a month or less and with very few posts managed to get greeted by some “older” members with bad rep for some reasons that are… let’s say “more or less valid”. And what I mean by that is really giving bad rep for spelling (even typos) or for users who somehow posted in the wrong section or for “bumped” threads… Has it occurred to any of those people who are “welcoming” newbies like that that if they don’t spell perfectly maybe it’s because english is not their first language? If they posted in the wrong section or “bumped” a thread or forgot to read the threads’ dates & such do you really think they do this on purpose? Come on!

I’m getting quite worried about this current situation because I can see why some of these people would get a bad impression of our site & not come back… Why would they come back if that’s how they are greeted by regular users? Give them a damn chance to get acquainted with the site before jumping on them at the first occasion, dammit! And leave the posts that are in the wrong sections & the likes to the staff, please.

Now I think everyone knows how fed up I am about this reputation thing so I’m not gonna stretch it more here… But instead what I’m gonna do is publicly ask depp to disable my own rep (as he has done for his) as well as send a PM requesting it. I’m sick of it! If it’s so important to others then fair enough but personally I just don’t really need a bunch of green dots to know how awesome I am… So in the future anyone wants to leave me a comment then please do so by private messaging (I know some of you who already do this anyway).

Thanks for taking the time to read this & please let’s all be nicer & more welcoming to new users!

[ramsies11]

...wow...
didnt know this was happening 0.0

[nolz95]

I agree. Even when I first came to Getdare I got bad rep for bumping I didnt even know what bumping was at the time.
I also think that people should not give a bad rep for reasons that are pointless to even mention like typos.
some people may have disabilaties and may have a hard time with words and things like that.
i think people should always check to see if a person is a newbie or if they are from a foreign country because if they are, chances are they don't speak english as well as we do.

[erick92]

When I see a new user I normally just leave them an anonymous +rep and comment welcoming them. Typo's don't really bother me, and I certainly would never give -rep to anyone for a few spelling mistakes. Hell, I've seen some senior members make more spelling mistakes then a new user, but I don't give them -rep for it. Anyways, I hope this clears up with the "welcoming" of new users.

[nolz95]

somebody acually reped me saying "dunno what bumping is read rules" and gave me a bad rep and it was right after i posted my first comment on this thread when i said i didnt know what it was when i first came here.people should read what people say before reping them.

[soldier]

Well done Chloe. At last someone with the moral courage to speak up. Let's just be a little more patient and less anal, people. Unless anal is your thing of course, in which case, crack on (if you'll pardon the phrase).

[Bandit|Queen]

If all you do is sit there and give people bad rep for spelling or bumbing a thread then you seriously need a hobby!

[youngscotsman]

i didnt no wot bumpin was till i got a couple of negitive reps on it,

[vivala_dare]

can i get my rep disabled coz to be honest i cant be doing with it.

[Davros]

I once suggested a feature in the Suggestion Zone where members can activate or disable their rep features.

But if it's disabled, they shouldn't be able to give rep either.

Then it's all fair

[vivala_dare]

yeh or can only give good rep and not bad maybe

either way i would get rid ove my rep

[war990]

Finally!!! This has been on my mind for awhile too... I had to choose what to post I should do this one or the pee or poop one. I was thinking about doing both but thought that people would get mad. Anyway thank you for bringing this up I see people getting mad too for having bad grammar and other problems like bumping so Bravo for saying it!!!!

[Musty 21]

cole... your mean... and right..

[the_boy]

I totally agree with you chloe when you say the the older users should lighten up on us newbeas, I had one person give me the dictionary definition of a word that I spelled wrong, and it really sucked.

[freak]

I am a long time member on another forums that had this trouble. I have the 4th or 5th largest amount of rep on that forums. Never abused it.
I always welcomed new people with + rep lol.
But because of the amount of trouble they set rules. No abusing the -rep system, thoughs who abused it had the -rep power removed.
Instead of disabling rep, Wouldnt that be a better idea here?
You could even apoint some "rep mods" If you think the current mods couldnt handle the load on top of everything else.