There is also a video guide to rep here.

There is a reputation system in which users give points to other users for good or bad posts.

Giving out reputation

You can give out reputation by clicking on the button near a post.The number of points you give out when you rep someone (called reputation power) depends on your post count, how long you have been a member, and your own number of reputation points. You need at least 150 posts and 110 reputation points in order for any reps you give out to be 'worth' anything, or in other words, to alter the reputation points of whoever you are giving rep to. Even if you do not have 150 posts and 110 reputation points you can still give rep, after all it's the thought that counts. If you wish to calculate your rep power, go here.

You can give out either positive or negative reputation. Positive reputation will add to the recipient's reputation points total (providing you meet the criteria stated above) and negative reputation will deduct from the recipient's total. If you give a negative reputation, the amount of points it will reduce the recipient's reputation total by will be half the value of your reputation power (rounded down for odd numbers).

Receiving reputation

A user's points are linked to the 'gems' you see above their posts. Everyone starts off with 100 points, or one green gem, like this: . Then, for every 100 rep points (for small reputations) you get another green gem.

If you've been given rep (not before), you can check your reputation points by clicking on User CP at the top of the page. You will see the last ten reps you have received (if you want to see more than that, subscribe!) In the first column, there will be a gem, with the colour:

• or - Negative reputation - someone disliked or disagreed with your post.
• or - Positive reputation - someone agreed or liked your post.

The second column will direct you to the post which the person giving out the rep is referring to.

The third column is for any comment made by the person giving out the rep.

If you pass your cursor over your gem/gems above one of your posts or in your profile, you'll see a message come up. This message refers to the number of rep points you have. The higher the number of rep points, the greater your rep status:

After you have made it to six gems you can acquire a new type of gem, for positive reputations and negative reputations. These gems are much harder to acquire than the normal gems in that it takes a lot more points to achieve them and the gaps between each gem increases as the number of gems goes up.

In terms of the gems you see above posts, the scale for negative reputation is identical to that for positive reputations, but in negative values. For example, if you have between 100 and 199 points you will have two dark green gems, and if you have between -100 and -199 points you will have two dark red gems.

Occasionally you may see someone with a single grey gem: . This indicates that they have exactly zero reputation points.

Some people (for example administrators) have the ability to hide their rep. If someone is hiding their rep, it will appear as a single black gem: .

Some rules about rep:

• You can only give out rep once every 24 hours.
• You must wait 28 days before you can rep the same person again.

Rep is usually given out anonymously, unless the person giving out rep choses to sign their name. So, if you do want to know who gave you good or bad rep, there is little way of finding out exactly who gave it unless the person owns up. Asking the mods about it won't do any good, they will not investigate unless the reputation system is being abused (e.g. abusive comments).

The only way of finding out for sure who gave you a rep is by being a subscriber. Click here for details. Subscribers can see who gave them rep, their entire rep history (rather than just the last 10), the numeric value of each rep, their current reputation power and the last 10 reps they gave out.

TSR Reputation Power Calculator

    IF rep points < 110 OR post count < 150
    
        pos rep = neg rep = 0
        
    ELSE
    
        pos rep =   floor(rep points) / 100
                  + floor(post count) / 200
                  + floor(days registered) / 75
                  + 1
                  
        neg rep = floor(pos rep / 2)