ForumRepSystem

A Description of the System

The forum reputation is a system where forum users are able to give each other anonymous feedback (positive or negative) in response to individual posts. Each user has a green bar under their name that will expand as they gain more positive reputation, or turn red and expand as they receive more negative reputation.

Moderation and Accuracy

Users are free to give reputation whenever they feel like it, for any reason. There is a code limitation that you can't give the same person more reputation until you've given a sufficient number of others positive/negative rep in between, meaning users may often run around and just spread reputation points so they can give positive/negative rep to an individual again.

Moderator Participation

The majority of the forum moderators have disabled the ability for users to give them feedback, reasoning that since they lock threads and deal with abusive users, they would be targets for negative rep. This is in fact a sweeping assumption, many of the more wild forums that employ this method of self-policing have highly repped moderators since they are the ones that keep things on track.

By not participating in a system they have brought in, certain moderators seem to be saying that they are above others and therefore should be immune from feedback from their fellow Ubuntu users and developers.

The Problems

There are several serious problems with this system. These problems will be outlined and supported here:

Psychological: Fear of Speaking One's Mind

Some of our users spend massive amounts of time particpating on the forums. For those that interact at a frequent rate, they are likely to disagree with another user eventually. Certain individuals have much thinner skin than others and take "harsh", anonymous criticism a lot more personally. Therefore, getting negative reputation may discourage certain individuals to fully speak their mind, which is against the spirit of Ubuntu as per the Code of Conduct:

• Desmond Tutu described ubuntu in the following way:
  • "A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole." -- Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in No Future Without Forgiveness

It's Against the Spirit of Ubuntu

Ubuntu is meant to be a collaborative, involved group all working towards a single goal: producing a top notch distribution. We should not put one user above another because they have managed to get more "positive reputation". Think about how the word "reputation" sounds within our Ubuntu community. Do we really want to convey to new users that some are more "popular" than others, therefore making their words more valuable than said user's?

• From the Code of Conduct:

  Be collaborative. Ubuntu and Free Software are about collaboration and working together. Collaboration reduces redundancy of work done in the Free Software world, and improves the quality of the software produced. You should aim to collaborate with other Ubuntu maintainers, as well as with the upstream community that is interested in the work you do.

Possible Solutions

There are several solutions to this problem, some more drastic than others. I will start from the least first.

Remove the Ability to Give Negative Reputation

We're here to encourage one another in open source development and should therefor support one another in their efforts to run and improve what we work on together. Just because someone dis-likes Gnome (and says so) for X reason doesn't mean they deserve an anonymous smack on the wrist.

By removing the ability to give negative reputation, the system is now positive only, with everyone gaining reputation over time. The competition to get these points that will result is another matter entirely (whether it's a positive side-effect or a negative one).

Remove the Reputation System Entirely

Get rid of the reputation completely. This would be the cleanest way to go about restoring some integrity and the spirit of Ubuntu to our forums, perhaps the most actively traveled mechanism for interaction and support for the community.

Community Council Jurisdiction

It has been brought up that the forums are an unofficial part of the Ubuntu project, but I encourage everyone to remember the following:

• The Ubuntu forums are perhaps the most visible and well-traveled of all portals for community interaction. What goes on there reflects on the distribution as a whole.

• The forums say they are bound by the CodeOfConduct under their FAQ.

• The forum staff members who have achieved official Member status within Ubuntu are most definitely expected to promote the values outlined in the CodeOfConduct.

Moderator Oppression

I (GregTaylor/SquishyWaffle) have brought this topic up on the forums (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=40056&page=1&pp=10) to see if anyone shared my opinion on this matter. I found that others share the opinion that this system portrays a negative picture of Ubuntu and has the potential to cause trouble. Generally the contributors and moderators disagree with me as they are somewhat above the system since they get their flashy titles and immunity from the system we speak of.

Furthermore, I (GregTaylor/SquishyWaffle) was told to "drop the subject" as people started to disagree with the moderators. I was told that I am disrespecting the decisions of the forum staff that bear the name of Ubuntu to thousands of people and are very much attached to the Code of Conduct. By silencing a "non-violent protest" where no blows were being thrown, I have effectively been told to keep quiet in an attempt to keep my opinion hidden. This is completely against what I have came to learn as Ubuntu. I've been running this distro since the first public testing release and I like to think that I have the right to chip in my completely neutral, non-offensive opinion to improve the community and quality of our distribution. The fact that my ability to do so is limited even when presenting a valid discussion is completely counter to what we as a group stand for.

Related Material

• Forum Thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=40056&page=1&pp=10

Comments

FabioMarzocca - I do fully agree with your position, and I am very sad of what you have been told by forum's people. In the past I had roughly an experience similar to yours here. I must say that we cannot generalize here, as there is a lot of people really believing and acting in Ubuntu's philosophy. But everywhere in the world foolishness exists. Anyway, if there is any vote to express, I am to get rid of the reputation system completely.

BeniaminoCaputo - I agree with you too. I think that reputation system, in addition to put in a spot who have a negative label, have another more negative effect. It introduce rank to the post of people, not on the basis of the content, but on the reputation or classification whose post it. A full of meaning post of a neewbie is less considered than a meaningless post of a super moderator, to the detriment whose call for help and the purpose of the forum.