Can we improve the look of rep gems?

Back in the day, neg reps, which were red, were caused by people negging (thumbs down) onto the forum. These helped single out the bad posters who didn't contribute positively to the forum aside from comedic purposes. These included the likes of Dalek, im so academic and Bakmouth, and helped other users remain wary or keep caution in front of these people, so as to avoid wasting time.

So why was the negative rep taken down? From what you have said it did a good job of singling out those whos post werent needed

So why was the negative rep taken down? From what you have said it did a good job of singling out those whos post werent needed

Because it's negative and bullying, apparently. It meant people were afraid to post what they really felt.

I have a feeling that you disagreed at the time

I have a feeling that you disagreed at the time

Hey Guys,

We have done a bunch of user testing recently and everyone we had in didn't understand what the rep gems where in a post due to them not being intuitive enough.

It is also difficult to see exactly how many rep gems a user has so maybe we could display this as more of a progress bar with levels. Just an idea.

Is there anything we can do to make rep stand out more and make sense to all users? I will mock up some of your ideas and add them to the thread so we can work out together how to make this feature more amazing.

XXX

That would be an accurate assessment.

Some trolls prided on getting negs and displayed it as a badge of honour.

Would you think it would be beneficial if the negative reps were bought back?

I can see the pros and cons of it. I certainly think it would be useful in some parts of the forum.

What was the main pro and con?

Pro: easily identifying quality replies in forums where actual questions are asked

Cons: cliques

Get rid of rep. It's pointless these days without neg reps. It's more a measure how often you reply first to a thread and how long you've been doing it. I'd love to see us move towards a new system other forum software uses such as reactions along the lines of Agree, Like, Useful, Funny and Thanks. These can then integrate with the badge system rather than an elitist colour bar.

You have reached the limit of how many posts you can rate today!

As always, my idea of an improvement is to go back to what we had before - five green gems, followed by five 'shiny' green gems (as we have now, but stopping at 10, not 12), followed by five gold gems (), followed by five rainbow/disco gems (). Just stick those on a second row below the green ones.

I think one problem with helpful posts in places like SH or Unis is they only get rep'd by the person you are helping. Which is great, but they are often a newbie and only have 0 or 1 gems, so the "value" of their rep is low.

Perhaps more rep value should be awarded if a newbie OP reps a helpful poster.

Progress bars makes it feel like a game. The progress bars on badges are enough.

I agree, though that's what the hero badge is meant to be for as I understand it.