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Our new Rails app: pplrep

pplrep.com

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Re: Our new Rails app: pplrep

#11

Post by pplrep »

snitko wrote: post #2

Reputation is a very important problem worth solving. However, I'm not sure your app tackles the most important part of this problem, which is connections between participants. For example, let's say I started a business and I need first customers, which I cannot get without the reputation. One cheat is to simply create 100 accounts on your website, each referring to each other and giving points to each other. Even i…

Thanks for your comment. I am the author of the app. We are always checking for abuse, and if someone abuses the system, it will be dealt with.

Re: Our new Rails app: pplrep

#12

Post by aespinoza »

Maybe I miss something, but why would I want to get reps? I mean what is the objective of it. Is it to incentivize people to help others? Or just an ego boost. I can help people without giving reps.

In my opinion this would be a feature of a larger product. It would be cool to implement it in Hacker News. Where you can get Karma for helping others here. But it would still be an add-on. The focus of karma in hacker news is to incentivize people on submitting better articles. What does it mean for me to have more reps ?

Re: Our new Rails app: pplrep

#13

Post by jmduke »

I'm reminded of a game I used to play in middle school called MapleStory. It was a pretty generic, grindy MMORPG but one of its more mechanics was a 'reputation' stat that each character had, with no ostensible uses besides to tell who was well-liked and who wasn't. You could 'fame' someone and 'defame' someone once per day, similar to this system.

As one might expect, the system never was as honest as you'd hope: you'd have massive "fame trading" rings, because what's the point of giving away your fame for the day if you don't get anything in return? And, more maliciously, there would be guilds and clans who'd designate targets to 'defame on sight': forty people defaming you over the course of a week would usually put you into the negative hundreds, sort of ruining that stat permanently (unless, of course, you 'bought fame'.)

Re: Our new Rails app: pplrep

#14

Post by sebg »

On the front page - if you make an element that looks clickable, people are probably going to click on it.

should probably be clickable. I probably clicked on it 5 or 6 times before i had to scroll down.

Re: Our new Rails app: pplrep

#15

Post by pplrep »

jmduke wrote: post #13

I'm reminded of a game I used to play in middle school called MapleStory. It was a pretty generic, grindy MMORPG but one of its more mechanics was a 'reputation' stat that each character had, with no ostensible uses besides to tell who was well-liked and who wasn't. You could 'fame' someone and 'defame' someone once per day, similar to this system. As one might expect, the system never was as honest as you'd hope: yo…

I'm the creator of this website. I used to play mapelstory, too. And I used to read the sleepywood forums. I knew the GMs, stoveboy and all of them.

Re: Our new Rails app: pplrep

#16

Post by mrcwinn »

pplrep wrote: post #9
omgsean wrote: post #8

George Zimmerman is in seventh place. This app doesn't really make any sense.

Hi. The site just launched. So far it seems our members seem to like Zimmerman. It's out of our hands as to who people want to rep, as that should be up to the community.

In other words, people don't have to be real on your site? Did George Zimmerman actually sign up?

It may help the reputation of the site itself to have a real user base. I know it's slow going in the beginning when you get out there - but I simply don't understand this.

Re: Our new Rails app: pplrep

#17

Post by pooya72 »

I know this is well intentioned, but it might have the opposite effect. There has been a lot of study done on rewards and motivation. It turns out that giving external rewards can undermine motivation. For example, giving stars to children for their drawings will undermine their natural motivation to draw. The same can be said about monetary rewards. Moreover, people who do deeds for an external reward are usually less satisfied compared to those who do deeds for their own sake.

A lot of this research is done under Self-Determination Theory.

Re: Our new Rails app: pplrep

#19

Post by pplrep »

LordHumungous wrote: post #18

>Each time you rep someone, you are rewarded with 2 rep points of your own. Uhh I'm no expert but it seems like rep points don't really mean much if you can award them to yourself.

It's a way to encourage people to use the app. It was not originally like that. I added that two days ago. But you guys are right. Feature removed.

Re: Our new Rails app: pplrep

#20

Post by pplrep »

mrcwinn wrote: post #16
pplrep wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi. The site just launched. So far it seems our members seem to like Zimmerman. It's out of our hands as to who people want to rep, as that should be up to the community.

In other words, people don't have to be real on your site? Did George Zimmerman actually sign up? It may help the reputation of the site itself to have a real user base. I know it's slow going in the beginning when you get out there - but I simply don't understand this.

I cannot verify if Zimmerman is real. If famous people sign up and would like their accounts verified, they can contact us. It's a similar dilemma Twitter has.
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