Reputation System

[Farcaster]

The suggestion has been made that we perhaps have a reputation system that allows members to post feedback about other players. This is something that up until this point, I have been loathe to do, because I think it may have an impact on the friendly and welcoming environment of the Pen & Paper Games community. However, there are definitely sometimes when it would be in the community's best interest for there to be some sort of mechanism to let other members know about your experience's with another player. I'm torn on this. In part, because I do not want to have to become involved in player disputes, nor do I feel like we need to have everyone's dirty laundry aired on the forums.

So, I'd like to know what you, the community, think. Should we have a reputation system of some sort? And do you have any thoughts about how such a system could be implemented so that it wouldn't become a mud-slinging contest nigh unseen since the Bush-Kerry presidential race? Perhaps some eBay style feedback system?

[boulet]

Personally I don't feel I need it. I'm confident about my ability to assess people. Yeah it may take more than one time to realize that x or y aren't my type of players, or that I don't get along with them, or our gaming styles are incompatible... Not a big deal. RPG is a social activity, it means spending time dealing with people, fine by me. Plus someone's devil could become my best buddy, that's really subjective.

Now if you meant more like a WARNING button that would pop up some incident report form, in case say you met a real whacky guy that owned pedophile material or was a terrorist proselyte, that's another story. It could be important for you to have this minimum level of protection so PnPG isn't an easy target in some hypothetical future for some maniac lawyer trying to throw some blame on the website...

[cplmac]

Not exactly sure, it might be OK as long as it has to do with actual game play. By this, I mean the players ability to roleplay their character. Maybe there could also be an area for players to grade the DM/GM of the game. In each case there could probably a couple different catagories to actually vote about.

The one thing I would not like to see is that the friendly nature of this site be changed. If it would start to do that, I would vote to get rid of this particular aspect. Would hate to see the site suffer because of this.

I like the idea about the warning button. Can never be too careful in this sue happy age we live in.

[rabkala]

Would I find out that everybody really does hate me ? ... I would be unable to continue.
Would I see that others post nice things? ... I would doubt their honesty.
Would it be obscured from me? ... I would be driven mad wondering what people said about me.
Would it create tensions? ... Most probable.
Would ingenious freaks figure out ways to make themselves look good despite this (like using other computers/IP's/users)? ... most likely yes!

[tesral]

Too much potential for abuse and I don't think that useful. One man's meat and all that. The player X couldn't stand might be the perfect person for my group.

Tastes and styles differ too much. Too much potential for abuse. Don't bother.

[nijineko]

excellent points. good people will use such a system as intended. people of less than strict and upright morals and ethics will not necessarily use it as intended. (not to mention all the different variants of what "strict and upright" could possibly mean....) some will find it fun to use it to post random things, or to mess with people, or even to get back at someone for something, or even just to prove (or disprove) a point.

if you think you can manage to alleviate all of those potential concerns, then it might be something to discuss seriously.

[8cidx]

I would go with the "Warn" angle. As long as it's a system anonymous to other players and only tracked by the admin / moderator it should be fine.

[Skunkape]

I don't know as a reputation system as far as a feedback type would be a good idea. Perhaps a system that would give an idea of the type of player might be better. I'm not talking about a negative feedback system, but one that confirms that said player prefers Role-Playing or Roll-Playing etc.

The only problem with that type of system is that certain labels tend to have negative connotations attached to them. For instance, a hack and slash player is generally considered to be less of a player than say a role-playing player. Personally, I don't consider the label hack and slash to be bad, but that's just me.

The nice thing that this type of system would do is allow players to find similar types that they're looking for, without relying on the individuals in question accurately describing their preferred method(s) of play. But as with all rating type systems, they're going to be subjective and not always taken in a positive perspective.

I honestly like to get a general idea of what kinds of game experience a player wants, makes it easier for me to tailor the game toward the player, but, I also prefer a story-teller style game over a hack and slash style as far as me being the GM.

Anyway, those are my main concerns about a reputation system and most of what other people have written good concerns/comments about the system as well. I have to say, we are most times constructive and helpful with each other in this community, so let’s make sure we don’t ever do anything to change that for the worst!

[Drohem]

Your gut feeling is correct Farcaster. I would recommend against it.

[tesral]

I honestly like to get a general idea of what kinds of game experience a player wants, makes it easier for me to tailor the game toward the player, but, I also prefer a story-teller style game over a hack and slash style as far as me being the GM.

That is already in the player registery.

[Skunkape]

That is already in the player registery.

Isn't it the player talking about themselves? I'm talking about other player's views, not what the player thinks of himself. Granted, hopefully we're being honest when we set up our profile, but if I play with say 10 other members of the site, and I say I'm a role-player but they feel I'm more of a roll-player, wouldn't it be nice to see their opinions of my play style compared to my opinion?

[mrken]

Please allow me, if you choose to implement this idea, I guarantee you will find some people will abuse it.

At one time an anonymous user threatened to kill my entire family if I didn't do what he wanted. I sort of blew it off as a juvenile prank but copied it to a log. The day he told me he was just a few miles from my house and had his shotgun loaded I called the police, I also sent copies of all logs to the forum leader, AOL and to the local police department.

It turned out to be a juvenal prank, but the kid lost forum privileges, his ISP and had to explain to the police and his parents why he said what he did. I have never had any problems with him since.

Moral of this is to take care of this away from the forum view so as not to inspire other dark thoughts. The kid didn’t really intend to harm me or my family; he just thought he could get what he wanted without any consequences, just like so many people these days.

[spotlight]

AMEN!!! I agree with mrken. I myself had to face just such a ...person... on another site where I play alot. Although he volunterrily left the site, I still had to appologize for losing my temper and telling him a few unnice descripters.

People will always do and say regretable things, no matter what. But, if we open a specilized forum to do that, I think we will encourage such bad behvior.

'Tis better to leave the BOMB in the hands of the moderators.

[nijineko]

i'm reminded of the story of sodom and gomorrah. god stops and chats with abraham and mentions that he's on his way to toast the cities. after some careful haggling, god agrees to spare the cities if there are 10 righteous men found therein. it didn't happen.

none of us are god, or even close to most conceptions of a god. let alone "righteous". heck, most of us might even be unable to claim they've never told a lie or deliberately mislead anyone, ever in their lives. if you could find even one truely and completely honest person, maybe they could manually rate everyone... but no matter what, some would grouse and contend over the rating. ^^ i think perhaps there is another way to go about it.

what if the dm/gm in question submitted an after-game summery. the players too. the synopsis itself would cover the highlights and lowpoints of the game, but with a few rules. it must be written in third person, and not ever use any names-character or player. each synopsis has all the names of the players and dm/gm attached to it that participated in any part of the game. these would have to be manually screened by somebod(ies). mods, belike. stuff that steps outside the rules should be highlighted and with reasons appended, sent back for revision.

perhaps that could manage to provide some sort of feedback, while avoiding some of the pitfalls we've been discussing. just a thought. ^^

[TAROT]

I can't think of any way to make it actually useful.

It's a very subjective thing, and my "too much X" is someone else's "not enough X." We could both end up not enjoying the session for the opposite reason.

There are people who post here that I am sure that I would not enjoy their game. They're having fun. Their players are having fun. That's great. Having 20 people say "5/5 Awesome!" doesn't have any bearing on whether or not I would like it.

20 people saying "0/5 Blows chunks!" is similarly meaningless. By the time I figure out the preferences of the reviewers, it would probably be easier to sit in on a session and make my own decision.

OTOH, I wouldn't mind a heads up if someone runs into a person who shows up to the session in a tinfoil hat and spends the game talking to his hunting knife about how "They don't understand us."