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Closed Rep points are fine, but...
I honestly don't think turning rep point accumulation into a competition is a great idea. Although it hasn't happened yet, I feel it could potentially bring forth spammers and people to run a bunch of random searches just to gain rep and be number 1. Rep itself as you all may already have figured out is to act as a gauge for how active and well-known a user is in the forums. This could become a factor in a variety of things that involve interactions between users( like trades and whatnot). Of course even with the whole competitive aspect, scammers and the like can still falsely boost their rep; so I guess the main thing at this point is to either remove point leaderboards in order to discourage those that will spam just to simply be #1 or have some sort of way to detect obvious point grinding tactics in the forums if you don't have a method of doing so already.
Comments
The way we see it, if you're spamming short posts just for post count, that's a violation of the rules, and you may catch a warning, or a suspension if it continues. The same goes for making multiple accounts just to get Likes/Insightfuls, and we'll deal with those folks when it occurs. It's already happened, and we know what to look for.
We have these systems in place now so that everyone wants to use them, and use them in the intended manner. We believe it adds to the interactions and engagement across the forums as a whole, compared to not having them.
Anyway thanks for the response.
Likes/insightful points, are seen under the posts, which allows to see how many people agree with exact post (even tho they may have nothing to respond with, so no one has to do any extra posts just to say 'i agree').
Reputation points and leaderboard aren't good, because this is more like a 'competition feature' rather than 'social feature'. It doesn't really have any use, besides boosting ego of some people. It's not only about abusing stuff to get more points, but the fact that it basically is a ranking of 'best people' (it's just wrong... and it doesn't even make sense, because you can't just put everyone in single category).
I personally think that all posts should be reviewed objectively by users, because even if someone isn't really 'popular' - he may have a good point. More often in fact, those people who are 'popular' (because they are nice and 'social'), have less useful arguments/posts than those who are not 'popular'. Simply due to the fact, that those people who play to gain more points/support, try to gain approval rather than make sense. So they reduce the information amount/quality for the sake of 'likes'. They follow what people want to believe in, and what they accept... rather than what is logic and truth.
Progress is based on changes, which people often don't like. It's about pointing out the mistakes, accepting them, and learning from them to not commit them again. Peer pressure/social approval, are degrading the quality of discussion, and flow of useful information.
Forum isn't meant to be 'facebook', it is a place where people have discussions in purpose to make some useful conclusions that may help to improve in certain subject. For that we need more objectivity, and less of 'social' stuff. Peer pressure is bad xD.
Just my two cents.