[FractalJackal]

If anyone is really interested, here is the breakdown from vbulletin on how reputation works. it is long, and if you aren't interested you should probably ignore it, and me.


**edit** Also, this left out several graphs/charts/pictures when I cut and pasted it. I think it is still readable and conveys the information, and I am too lazy to go back and try and integrate the missing parts. **edit**

**Second edit** There is a much shorter breakdown of this post in the following post that highlights the pertinant parts and how they probably apply to this forum. **second edit**


An Introduction to User Reputation

User Reputation in its simplest form is a ranking of your user's benefit to your forum. Its basis comes from the opinions of all of your forum users that choose take part in it.

Users gain and lose reputation based on how their posts are scored by other forum participants. Users with the ability to affect reputation, will either give or take aways points by approving or disapproving with a post's content.

User reputation can be a divisive element of your forum so great care should be taken before a decision is made to enable it.

All of the factors that affect a user's reputation score are found in the User Reputation section of the vBulletin Options. Please view that section of the manual for more information on controlling how users are able to affect another user's reputation.

Modifying User Reputation Levels

As users, gain and lose reputation, they are associated with a moniker that describes their current level. These levels are modifiable by navigating to User Reputations->User Reputation Manager.

In the above example, we have all of the levels that users on this forum can achieve. For example, a user with a reputation of 55 would have the level of will become famous soon enough. A user with a reputation of -5 would have a level of has a little shameless behaviour in the past. Since the lowest level in this example is -99999, any user with a reputation lower than this would use the default undefined level that is set in the reputation section of the vBulletin Options.

From this screen you can choose to edit a level description, change a level minimum or remove a level. If you wanted to change the minimum level of has a reputation beyond repute from 2000 to 3000 you would enter 3000 in the input field where 2000 is currently and press [Update]

If you wished to change the text of has a reputation beyond repute, you would press the <Edit> link.

From this screen you can also change the minimum level as you can from the previous screen. Enter the new level text in the Description field but take care as you can not use HTML in this field. Press [Update] when finished.

Adding a new reputation level presents you with the same screen, but only empty. Make sure to choose a reputation level that is not the same as a level that already exists as levels must be unique. You will not be allowed to save the field if you duplicate a minimum level.

Viewing Reputation Comments

If you wish to see which users are leaving reputation for others and the comments they are making, you may navigate to User Reputation > View Reputation Comments. You will be presented with a form, allowing you to search based on criteria such as the user the reputation was left for or by (optional) and a range of dates to search across.

Once you submit this form you will receive results in a table like this:

This shows:

· The user that left the reputation
· The user that received the reputation
· The date and time the reputation was left
· The amount of reputation this user received
· The reason or comment the user giving the reputation left
· The post that prompted this user to leave reputation

You may also edit or delete the reputation that was left.

User Reputation

This section contains many settings that dictate how users of your forum are able to affect each other's reputation score.

· Enable User Reputation system
This is the global switch for the reputation system. If you disable this, users will not be able to rate each other nor will their scores be visible.
· Default Reputation
This is the reputation score that new users will start out with.
· Number of Reputation Levels to Display
When a user enters their User CP, they will see a list of their most recent reputation ratings. This affects how many of the latest ratings to display.
· Administrator's Reputation Power
If you wish to have administrator's wield a certain reputation power independent of their calculated score, enter it here. Otherwise, set this to 0 and they will use the same calculations as everyone else.
· Register Date Factor
The number of reputation points that a user is able to give or take is dependant on several factors, with the length they have been registered as one of them. A user's power is first initialized at 1 and then this factor and the factors that follow are used to increase it. For example if you set this to 365, every 365 days that the user has been a member of your forum, they would gain one point. So if they have been a member for five years, they would gain 5 points of power for a total of 6.
· Post Count Factor
The amount of posts that a user has can also affect their reputation power. Set this to number of posts that you want to award one point for. For example, set this to 50 and for a user with 500 posts, they would gain 10 points of power.
· Reputation Point Factor
The users current reputation score can also affect their reputation power. Set this to 100 and a user with a reputation of 1000 would gain 10 points of reputation power. If you set any of the power factors to 0, that will effectively remove that factor from having an effect on the user's reputation power.
· Minimum Post Count
If the reputation system is enabled, anyone will be able to rate a post but only users with a post count above the level you set here will be able to actually give points or take points from another user.
· Minimum Reputation Count
As with the post count above, a user must have a reputation above this level to be able to give or take points from another user's score.
· Daily Reputation Clicks Limit
This sets how many unique members that a forum user will be able to rate in any 24 hour period. Administrators can rate as many people as they wish.
· Reputation User Spread
This setting dictates how many unique members that a user must rate before they are able to rate the same member twice. The goal of this setting is to stop a member from either artificially bumping or dropping a user by repeatedly rating their posts.