Sadly, there will be a few that do abuse it and spoil for others.
Personally though I dont like the rep and karma systems. Credits can accidentally be given to the wrong person, and often people who make detailed replies may not be given rep they deserve.
One of my biggest problems with the rep system is the way it can seem to stop the flow of a thread. Theres many a forum Ive visited and as you try to scan through the thread, you constantly see "Please rate my post" type signatures. Some of the signatures asking people to rate posts are longer than the answers they provide, and by the time youve seen a thread with about a dozen rate my post requests in by various people it gets monotonous.
Totally agree. Whilst it was nice to have lots of green pips under my username, the fact that I
know my posts have helped others is worth vastly more to me. I don't think there are actually many members on there with a 'please rate my post' type signature but I am well aware of the amount of PM's sent requesting rep and of a little 'clan' of members who constantly repped each other.
I first joined TTMF when there were less than 500 members. It was totally by accident really as well !! Tiscali had bought out Freedom2Surf who were my BB supplier and I looked for an alternative as I had no wish to be with Tiscali. Talktalk seemed to be the best priced option so I opted for them. After switchover though, my line was running at 13meg although it wouldn't hold sync for more than about 20 minutes at a time. Having a smattering of knowledge about ADSL, I jumped on the 'net looking for an answer. I found TTMF and joined. The admin at the time (Matt), identified my issue as a test profile on the linecard in the MSAN and it was resolved within 30 mins. I've stayed around ever since. Got asked if I would like to be an 'experienced member' and said yes, and this later evolved into 'community moderator'.
In essence its a great forum. The support by TT staff is fantastic and most issues get resolved within a few days. The community section is also great with lots of help and advice on multiple subjects.
Sadly though, every two or three years certain elements seem to appear that wish to disrupt things and cause upset. It's unfortunate that this happens but it seems to be a slowly repeating pattern. The offenders will either stop, due to heavy moderation of their posts, or be banned due to continued infringement of the forum rules. Meanwhile the happy feeling on there is gone for now.
Logically, I can offer no explanation why a forum has a 'mood'. It does however, and the mood over there is not good at present
EDIT for
BSThe rep system was originally designed to give other members an indication of whether a poster would be offering good advice etc. It was thought that if a member had high rep then clearly the majority of their posts were giving accurate information and that their advice could be 'trusted'. This
did work initially, but the aforesaid abuse of the system meant that members whose sole occupation appears(ed) to be to subvert the forum had high rep also. This in turn led to new members being either unsure of whether to trust advice (particularly in the community section) or just ignoring the community section as a whole, and only posting in the support section which means extra work for the already stretched staff.
Whether the suspension of the system and possible ultimate removal of it is a positive move remains to be seen. I do know that instead of people complaining about posts by giving negative rep, they are now using the PM system, or reporting more stuff, as my inbox clearly shows !!