Reputation point system is ridiculous

Question

The reputation point system is useless. Why would i need reputation points to answer a question or to create a tag? People should have the freedom to use just about any tag they want and should be able to post any answer they want. It's all ridiculous! Reputation points should just be for users to judge other users.

If this reputation system wasn't repaired: on a different topic, somebody suggested that the "split" tag should be killed. Guys do not kill tags as other people who just joined might find them useful.

Edit: Why am i getting so many down votes? Edit: Vote up if you agree that the reputation system is baloney!

Tags that never could make it: reputation point system is dumb stupid pointless ridiculous

Edit: I got all the answers i wanted. no more complaints are needed.

Answer 1

The reputation point system is really designed to ease people into learning to use the site effectively and eventually metamoderation tasks. While it shouldn't be punitive in theory, sometimes it is - especially when something is clearly out of scope. On main sites, question downvotes often indicate a lack of research, information, or something that simply isn't within the scope of the site. We often edit questions for new users if the issues are minor, and comment on how to make things better. Sometimes something simply isn't in scope

Using the appropriate tags is important because it makes it easier to find specific sorts of questions. We clear out bad tags cause its noise. As a new user, if you really need a tag, and can make a case for it, it'll be added. However reputation point system is dumb stupid pointless ridiculous are textbook invalid tags - tags are like salt. A little goes a long way, too much causes high blood pressures. discussion will do nicely. This is PRECISELY why you need reputation to post tags.

The problem with your original question is really that its essentially a broad purchase recommendation. While there's workarounds, there's no real way to post a proper, universal answer to handle 'why is my computer slow'. we typically handle this on chat, but yes, it kind of sucks that you can't do that, but once again, that low barrier of entry keeps spammers and all but the most persistent trolls out.

Handling a high traffic site isn't easy. We have a fairly large team of moderators, we have community mods, and people still do things like use tags we've asked them not to use.

Getting rep isn't hard. As I pointed out, you need ONE quality answer, or a good question. I've always pointed folk at ESR's asking questions the smart way or you could do what I did and look around. (I've asked bad questions. It isn't the end of the world).

The reputation system lets us do a few things. Firstly, its our first line of defence against spammers. Secondly, it ensures quality to an extent. Finally, people love imaginary internet points.

I'd add, that the reputation point system is integral to how we do things here. Get used to it, work out how we do things, and you'll get a lot more out of the site.

Answer 2

Superuser is very much concerned about serving the best to the users who put their queries here. Also it helps to prevent spammers to drop their links on this website. Spammers do not have enough time to build their reputation. You need to prove your caliber to help others. It also helps the users to filter among the most popular and active user.

I don't think it's bad, rather i feel it makes you motivated at every up vote to help more and share as much as you could

Answer 3

First of all, the question you originally asked was how to game on a 6 year-old laptop that was cheap even in it's day. I really hope you see the irony of criticizing the reputation system on a question like that.

More to the point, the low-level privileges are tied to reputation primarily for troll prevention. It doesn't take much effort to earn enough reputation to participate in the SU community. The bar is set so low that you only need one quality question or answer and you're in the club. But it's more effort than 95% of trolls are willing to put in, and that's fortunate for the rest of us. (Note that I am not calling you a troll).

Also, the tag system needs to be clean and efficient. It's not like Twitter where you can hashtag any cutesy saying you want. As a contributor to the community, the tags are the best way to find relevant questions for which you know the answer. Tags like "reputation point system is dumb stupid pointless ridiculous" don't help people do that.

This is a harsh lesson to learn for a new user on a site like this, but your question was entirely self-serving. You earn reputation by being useful to others. The only person who cares about gaming on an old POS laptop is you.