Link: https://github.com/Pico/phpBB-Reputation-System and https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=2147118
The Reputation System adds the possibility to rate posts to the base phpBB forum software. Only posts in the story boards can be rated . A user's reputation is the combined reputation of all their posts. A user can rate a post with +1 to +3 points, but their ability to rate posts is limited by their own reputation. The reputation of a story is what classifies it as a Popular Story or a Community Favorite. Users with high reputation become Pillars of the Community.
Reputation Power
Every user has a Reputation Power. The Reputation Power is a pool of reputation points that a user can spend within a given time period, 12 hours with our current settings. A newly registered user starts with a reputation power of 6. If they decide to rate a post with +2 points, they only have 4 points left. Once all their points are used up they can't rate posts anymore and have to wait until their reputation power refreshes. So a newly registered user can give two posts 3 points or 6 posts 1 point or any other combination of 1, 2 or 3 points that adds up to 6. The reputation refresh doesn't happen at any given time, but always 12 hours after a point was spent. So let's say a user spends 3 points at 8am, 1 point at 9am and the remaining 2 at 10am. Then they will regenerate 3 points at 8pm, 1 point 9pm and 2 at 10pm.
The Reputation Power of a user increases as they gain reputation. For every 5 reputation points they gain their Reputation Power will increase by 1. Another 14 points are gained upon reaching Pillar of the Community status. The maximum Reputatition power is 40 reached at a reputation of 100. So highly reputable community members will be able to rate the posts of others much more than newly registered ones. The only way to gain reputation is to post in the story boards, either by publishing a story or providing feedback to the stories of others that the community appreciates. We want to encourage you not only to give positive ratings to stories you like, but also to feedback that leads to constructive engagement between authors and readers.
All of these settings might get adjusted as we observe the Reputation System in action. We want reputation to be a scarce ressource and we will have to see whether a refresh time of 12 hours and a maximum pool of 40 points are too restrictive or maybe no effective restriction at all.
Why Reputation is Important
The reputation of the opening post of a story topic is its story rating. This is what is posted next to the story's title in the topic list. It decides whether a story is moved to the Popular Stories or Community Favorites board. The reputation of a user decides whether they are eligible to join the Pillars of the Community. Only Pillars have access to the Community Favorites board. The reputation threshold values for Popular Stories, Community Favorites and Pillars of the Community will likely have to be adjusted over time as we gain experience what reputation value for example the top 10% most popular stories typically reach. But for starters, we are going with the following values:
- Popular Stories: 30 reputation
- Community Favorites: 60 reputation
- Pillars of the Community: 50 reputation
Updating a Rating
If you choose to rate a post for example with +1, you can later upgrade that rating to +2 or +3. You can only upgrade your rating, but never downgrade it and negative ratings are impossible all together. An upgrade from +1 to +2 for example costs you only 1 Reputation Power point. Whenever you upgrade a rating, you can also edit the comment you left for the author of the post. And if you rate the same post again but don't upgrade the rating, you only edit the comment that comes with your rating.
Planned Modifications of the Reputation System
The current Reputation System is good already in our opinion. But we would like to make some further adjustments.
- Users with high reputation should be added automatically to the Pillars of the Community. Currently we have to do that manually.