I think CC would greatly benefit from installing a reputation similar to forums such as bodybuilding.com where users can add to another person’s reputation for good advice/comments, or “neg” the person if they post something inappropriate or are simply giving horrendous advice. I’ve been lurking for a long time, and have only recently started posting, but I’ve seen some users give some pretty bad advice, and for a site that’s geared towards helping people with important decisions such as college choice, careers, etc., it would be beneficial to know how credible a poster is.
Is there a reason why, if a rep system has been considered before, it hasn’t been implemented, or has no one brought this up before? If if has been considered, why was it not integrated?
Thank you for your question. Any feature requiring subjective input by members leaves itself open to abuse. While we’d like to think that allowing members to rank one another would result in a fair assessment across our community, we know this is not likely the case. Personality clashes, jealousy, and members associating with ‘rival’ schools are a few among many possibly reasons to cast a negative vote.
That’s a valid point, but what if we just let people add positive reputation, and then only allow one to give positive reps for a post after giving it to a certain amount of other users (spreading reps). This could eliminate some of the abuse of “negging users” and would prevent people from giving their “friends” constant positive reputation.
Plus, while I agree that there might be some problems with abusing the negative reputation system, wouldn’t you agree that to some extent, posters who frequently have personality clashes with users or give rude remarks (even if the remark is factually correct) would generally not be the most useful posters? Just something to think about.
Otherwise, do you think maybe a trusted member (such as a mod) could post a sticky in the main forums (such as business major, law school, etc…basically any of the forums besides the individual school pages) with a list of users who are typically the most helpful? Maybe we could get the active posters within each forum to vote on the top 5 or something?
What I can do is forward your idea to the mods and other admins for their feedback. I know we’ve had similar ideas offered up in the past, but the cons always seemed to outweigh the pros. Still, I can at least bring your perspective to their attention.
We’ve actually had long-time members who have helped many people, but were eventually banned because of persistent “personality issues”. Despite being difficult and argumentative, they had unique knowledge that benefited other members. In this case, they might be voted down for being a “jerk”, but voted up because their advice helped someone choose the right path. Mods and admins have to make these tough calls every day, and instituting a ranking system for members could add more background noise to the process.
As for posting a list of “trusted members”, this list would have to be continually monitored and maintained (something we really don’t have the resources to do). In addition, backlash from members who feel they deserved a spot could be harsh.