Ernest just posted some comments clarifying recent changes to Votes, Boosts, Favorites, and Reputation Points:
- Upvotes & Downvotes function akin to Reddit
- Boosts count as two Upvotes (link)
- Favorites are added to https://kbin.social/fav if you Upvote (link)
- Reputation Points have been updated
In addition to that, Ernest stated that “there is no connection between reputation points and sorting algorithms. It’s just info in the profile” (link)
Reddit turned into an echo chamber because of karma, people didn’t want to express a different opinion than what the ‘masses’ have already decided on, because they would be downvoted and lose karma. The downvote feature itself being misused there too.
Reputation should be hidden or removed imo, keep the up/downs/boosts for sorting.
Critical difference. Reddit had groupthink literally enforced by the software. If you had negative karma in a subreddit and you tried to post, it would say “You are doing that too much, please wait 8 minutes to post again”, even if your last post was 2 weeks ago.
You have to try hard to get negative karma in a sub, or just never use it. Frankly, if a person frequents a sub and consistent say things majority of people dislike, is that person really right for that sub?
I feel we still need the reputation system, based on the fact that upvotes/downvotes get abused. Everyone always wants to give their 2 cents with how they feel about a comment if it invokes something in them, and upvotes/downvotes give them that power. As long as reputation doesn’t effect comment/post exposure then we should be fine.
If only the boost option exists and reputation is scrapped, I believe boost will be abused in the same manor as upvotes and downvotes do on Reddit.
Providing people with an outlet still to say “I agree with this person” or “this comment is stupid or I just don’t like it” I think will help mitigate the abuse of the post exposure system.
I do agree with others thoughts that reputation on a post/comment should be invisible though.
This wouldn’t solve the problem of downvotes being misused as an indicator of disagreement. I think it’s best if it stays entirely incidental.