Bad reputation of reputation

Question

For the record: the post below is not to defend the point where I am standing. That's why I feel I am entitled to bring this up.
Every now and then, reputation is brought up in discussions as an argument. Used wrongly in my opinion, for reasons pointed out below.

Not the only reason, but an important one was the question here http://meta.askubuntu.com/a/15662/72216, where the question at a certain point moved to a reputation/motivation discussion. The question wasn't reputation- motivated, but even if it were, it shouldn't (have) be(en) an argument at all.

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As a general rule, when working in teams, to make sure the team is productive, we need to make sure each and every member of the team has his or her own personal interest in a good result of the team. This interest may and will vary.

The formula of the SE sites understands this extremely well. That's one of the reasons the reputation system exists, and why we have a personal reputation record on SE sites.

The site obviously stresses on the importance of the personal reputation; not only are privileges directly related to reputation, but together with the general information of moderator candidates for example, detailed information is displayed on the candidates' reputation, the average reputation per post and so on.

Of course, we may hope that the motivation to answer (or ask) questions is not purely reputation based, and to prevent misunderstandings, mine isn't. However, as long as we post quality Q's and A's, keep the site's rules, maintain general rules of decensy and good behaviour, our personal motivation is totally irrelevant to the site.

Nevertheless, on a regular base, in discussions, "chasing reputation" is implicitely or explicitely mentioned as a bad thing, a sign of bad behaviour, doing it for the wrong reasons. As mentioned, in itself, chasing reputation, even if it is the only motivation to create good content, is perfectly fine and needs no defense at all.

So, in a nutshell, please don't use chasing reputation as an argument to prove you're right or someone else is wrong. What counts is good content and constructive behaviour. The motivation under the hood is no one's business but the poster's.

Answer 1

Sometimes, when I close my eyes in a daydream, I see a little green rectangle top left. The sign of joy!

I'm not a mind reader, but I think it's probably hypocritical for people to mutter disapprovingly about others "chasing reputation". Like my mother told me at school where I got bullied for always putting my hand up to give the answer "They're just jealous."

Problems might arise, I guess, when the overall glory of AU is damaged somehow by the way people behave, or needed effort (like reviewing and editing) is not made because it doesn't contribute to reputation.

In that case, I think people should be complaining about the problem, and not the motivation, since, as you say, what others are thinking is private and unknowable...

Moreover, we are not all the same, and it takes many different folks to make a glorious SE site, and many people do those non-rep-earning tasks, and as long as there are enough people doing them, then there isn't a problem...

In short I agree with you and am just rambling...

Better get back to writing quick answers to easy questions ploughing through the Close Votes Review Queue...

Answer 2

Reputation isn't just imaginary numbers on the screen. It's a number which says something important. It says that you helped people. So of course people like to "chase" it (or at least appreciate it when they get it). Why do people spend hours on AU helping people? It's not because they make money from it (mostly). It's not because there's (usually) some tangible, real life benefit to them immediately. It's mostly because they like the feeling of having helped someone. Of course! If you spend hours writing good answers and helping strangers with problems, and there's no feedback, then that's not a good feeling. So reputation is very important! It tells you that you helped people and that your work was useful. The feeling of having contributed to something useful can often be more valuable to us than even money.

Someone may say "your motive shouldn't just be reputation". But I think reputation really is a type of feedback showing you that you helped people. If someone said "Your motive shouldn't just be to know that you've helped people", then I would say, "Yes, it's an entirely decent motive to be on AU with the intention of trying to help people and wanting to have a solid affirmation that you actually did help people."

I think almost everyone here agrees with this, including the people you were having a discussion with in the post you linked to in OP (I was actually one of those people.)

I would suggest that it's hardly possible to be after only reputation. Reputation isn't "only" reputation. It's a symbol of something. Is anyone after just the number? I doubt it. The number itself would be totally meaningless if it didn't represent something. I believe what people are truly after is what the number represents. And I think that's a perfectly fine thing to be "after."

Otherwise it just seems meaningless. For example, let's say you spend lots of time and energy figuring out an excellent answer to a tough problem. OP abandons the post, and doesn't give any feedback to the answer. Very few other people notice the answer, and it just gets lost without any upvotes. Thankfully this doesn't happen very often. Because when we have worked hard at something, we need affirmation that it was actually helpful. And that is exactly what that little +100 or +200 symbol on the top tells you. That you helped people.

Finally, you can even spend your reputation to help others. Let's say a user has posted a really tough problem that you don't know the answer to. If you post a large bounty on it, it might just motivate people to put up the effort to find a solution to the tough problem. That's actually getting people to put in effort into something. That's something we pay lots of money for in the real world.

So, reputation is really important! I dare assert that without it, AU would be much, much weaker than it is today. And I don't blame anyone in the slightest, for chasing it. That would be like blaming a social worker for "chasing" the smiles on the faces of the people he/she was helping.

I often help my real life friends with their computers. I'll willingly admit that one of my motives is the feeling of having helped someone, and knowing that they are thankful. Reputation is the AU equivalent of that, and I think it's an entirely appropriate motive.

It's true that many of us might use reputation as food for our egos, etc, obsessing over it. Human nature can be like that. But unless a user is putting on a truly bizarre show, I think we should hesitate before suggesting that other users are in such a state. It's mostly quite hard to know what's actually going on in the mind of another person. So in this regard I believe we should mostly give everyone the benefit of the doubt.