The current rep system is broken. Guys like coachbadlee trotting around with 5 green bars is a walking mockery of the system. The idiot is currently debating with people in the Eurobasket thread about Eurobasket, even after acknowledging the fact that he hasn't actually watched a single game in Eurobasket. Then you have the constant back and forth trolling from Lin fans and those who hate Lin fans. There is simply too much garbage in the Garm for any human moderator to realistically deal with. The truth is, if you post enough, no matter how terrible the poster, you are going to ended up with some green bars through sheer volume. The current rep system is no way indicative of poster quality- the system's original intent. I think the solution to all this is to introduce a free market system to self regulate/moderate the garm. 1. Allow poster to neg rep eachother. You would receive a larger neg rep from posters with higher rep, the same way we receive a larger positive rep from them now. 2. Red bars work the same way as green bars. 100 per bar, increasing to 200 after a certain amount of bars. So on so forth. 3. Once you receive 5 red bars, you are no longer allowed to post, only read, for a set amount of time. Say, 1 month. Each additional red bar you accumulate from this point forward triggers the same 1 month penalty, or progressively harsher penalty. After a certain number of red bars, say 10, you are permanently banned. 4. You are only allowed certain privileges, such as thread starting, after a certain number of green bars, say 3. Once you go below this threshold, your thread starting rights are revoked again. 5. Once you reach a certain number of green bars, the max allowed, you become a moderator. These will be the board's self elected mods based on merit. While a moderator's task is much simpler in a self regulated system, the position is still necessary: someone breaks the rules and needs to be temp/perm banned etc. 6. Posters will be allowed to filter the board to only view posts from posters of X green bars and above. Some issues that may arise from this system: 1. Mass, mindless, group negging. This is fine, because it will be counteracted by the mass mindless circle jerk of repping we already see today. In the end, the mass negging and mass repping will cancel eachother out, leaving the truly good and bad poster to stand out. 2. Negging someone because you don't agree with him. Repping someone because you agree with him. This isn't some new issue. In the end, the popular opinion will be rewarded in both this new system and the current one. This is indeed a flaw, since the popular opinion is no way indicative of poster quality. However, what you gain from this new system is instantly ridding all of the obvious bad posters. The so called "LOFs" would be summarily annihilated. Yes, the so called "LOFs" will have the ability to neg rep as well, a frightening thought to some. The truth is, I see just as much baiting and goading from the other side, and these will be the people getting negged by the LOFs. Which leaves the rest of us, peaceful bystanders, the beneficiaries. In the end, the provokers on both sides will be the ones silenced, leaving the garm a much more tranquil place. No system is perfect, and especially in a free market system, there will be some innocent casualties. Hopefully the board can rise above and distinguish the difference between unpopular opinions and simply bad posts. There will be bumps along the way where that line is blurred. And unfortunately, in those instances there will be posters who will be unfairly punished, through no fault of their own. This is the sacrifice those few must make for the general betterment of the entire board. A system like this requires a tremendous amount of trust and belief in the human race from our Philosopher King, Clutch. Trust and belief that may or may not be deserved or warranted. Even as I propose this, I myself cannot foresee the consequences of the undertaking of such a social experiment. Do the masses and minions rise up in revolt, drowning the rulers and plunging this place into brimstone and hellfire? As the great Plato once said, Democracy is the seed to chaos. But another great philosopher once said, with great power comes great responsibility. Is humanity ready for such power and responsibility? What say you, Clutch?
