Must say that though I think this new feature is ridiculous, this thread is currently the most humorous one I have read all day!!! 
My inner Calvin says, “verbing weirds language.” My inner middle schooler says, “REP <em>ME</em>! REP <em>ME!</em>”
It must be time for more coffee.
GA, lmao!!
HMW, I agree about researching past posts as being most illustrative. That, of course, takes time and diligence - maybe the dots will be a shortcut for new arrivals.
“It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion.”
~ Joseph Goebbels
Roger, new arrivals will know that poster is savvy because of the dots? Or, not know what gained those dots in the first place? It’s a hierarchy, based on what? There are few experts here, like it or not.
I’m sure silverturtle is somewhere in people’s minds, too- and he posted as a high school kid. Most of what we all discuss is from our own perspectives and limited experiences.
On tripadvisor, "likes’ or “helpfuls” are based on other poster’s experiences. On the computer tech forums, the “likes” are a matter of one techie resolving another’s problem or making suggestions based on his expertise. Same for the plumbers talking to other plumbers, appliance guys advising other appliance guys.
On CC, we are lay people, parents, students, young adults…describing anecdotes, sharing opinions, or scolding each other. Not the same, to me.
Great. So every time we log on, we can see how liked we are. Or not. Yuck. Feels like high school again. Color me cranky.
I’m with you lookingforward and garland. I suppose it can simply be ignored, because you can “play” or “not play” it can be entirely passive… but I think it is not in the spirit of “liking” as lookingforward and also Pizza previously pointed out.
I don’t see the need for a popularity contest here. Didn’t need one in HS, either. If 7400 posts hasn’t demonstrated at least <em>something</em> about me – good or ill – by now, then I have clearly wasted a good part of the past six years.
CD that’s how I feel. I’ll just try to ignore it, but putting it up there right in front of us will make it a constant minor annoyance–like someone poking you going–hmmm, hmmm, not so popular, are you? What’s wrongwith you? Yuck.
@ lookingforward, garland, CountingDown, momofthreeboys: are you able to disable it via My Control Panel > Edit Options > Show Your Reputation Level?
^^^^No, no such option (Show your reputation level) in my account.
I agree with post #110.
This is the first day of these green boxes and who decided that I am “infamous”?
Ditto - no option.
After reading through this thread, a couple of points. I know I won’t win any popularity contests (which is what this rep system will become), and, quite frankly, I really don’t care.
<li>Anyone who wants to know if a poster’s advice is good can simply look back on previous posts. In threads, posters will often comment on someone’s particularly helpful post (such as is often done for kelsmom’s posts in the Financial Aid forum, for example). </li>
<li>The meaning of “rep” on this forum will be as varied as the number of posters. It’s difficult to see how this is going to be anything but a popularity contest. “Good advice” will equal “I like this poster.” Clubs and cliques may form. And what about the high schoolers who post here? Could this whole system deteriorate into cyberbullying (which it surely will if negative repping is allowed, and I wouldn’t like to see that on the kiddo boards, although I think it would be very interesting to see what happens with that on the parent boards)? </li>
<li>Since the discussion about what “rep” means isn’t clear at all in this thread, how will the other posters understand? (Then again, if it’s all really meaningless anyway, no matter!)</li>
<li>At the discretion of the mods, different posters have already started out at different levels? Say what? And, on the subject of mods, can they override the system and essentially control the whole rep contest? Someone’s apparently already overridden it to start different posters out at different levels.</li>
<li>Who really needs this level of complication in their lives, anyway?</li>
I,too, am skeptical of this because I’ve seen it go downhill very quickly on another forum I participate in.
Roger, I, too, only have the approve option when I click on the scales, and not the disapprove. If we’re supposed to have both options, there’s clearly a glitch somewhere.
This is just a really terrible idea . . . for all the reasons already mentioned.
I’d like to say that I don’t care what people think of me . . . but of course I do. And my “popularity” is going to be displayed for all (including me) to see? Yuck!!! I managed to avoid popularity contests in high school and now (many decades later!), I’ve been entered into one on CC!
What about giving members the option to opt out of the rating system?
Huh. Interesting. Not sure how I feel about this yet. But all you guys make me laugh.
Infamous here. It’s been hard work but I promise to keep it up. Thank you. Thank you. No applause please.
Worst idea ever. As for unhelpful posts, they get shot down fairly quickly–I see no reason to have a rating system at all.
Honestly, it seemed obvious to me this was going to be a “popularity contest” from the get go. To that extent, I suppose I secretly hoped to be popular but also hoped I wouldn’t take it too hard when others were more popular. I like to amass social media points. Just ask anyone who has tried to catch up with me on FourSquare. So, yes, I see this as being, to some extent, a bit of a game. But in all seriousness, I do think people will continue to make their judgments about people based on the apparent soundness of their advice and commentary (as demonstrated in any given post and in their “body of work”). I’m not going to discount one person’s opinion or bow before another based on his or her reputation squares. It just wouldn’t occur to me to do that when I have a tried and true method of assessing someone’s authority (which is to say, READING).