Reputation policy needs to be revised

Question

Please read the whole body before just clicking downvote button.I am sure there are more people who would just vote down without reading whole body.

What is reputation?

According to the help page, Reputation is a rough measurement of how much the community trusts you

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The Issues

Now when reputation is a measure of trust, it should be given concisely.But the truth is not the same.Below is why I think so.

• More repo means user has answered more easy questions.
  Consider an example question,"how to install ubuntu?".Now this question is very simple to answer and anyone who has installed ubuntu(even if blindly selecting all defaults) can answer this question.So answering this question does not mean the answerer is an expert.But the contrast is that, this would be the very question which will be viewed most and consequently voted above 100 +ve votes.So both asker and answerer will have thousands of reputation.

  On the contrary, consider a complex question which needs expert answerer.Such an question will be viewed only by very few expert people, and won't be upvoted more than 4 or 5 times.

  As an result, now you have one user with 500 rep by answering just one noobish question, and another with 25 rep, by answering an expert question.Now who is more trustworthy? one with 25 rep or 500 rep?

• Easier question, More views
  For the very reason mentioned above, askubuntu encourages there user to answer more easier questions than those who take more time and expertise.So the harder questions go unnoticed(unless an bounty is assigned).This is also proved by the fact that "easier to solve" questions have more views than "harder to solve" questions.

• Reputation increase without contribution
  Once you are on the site for long enough and have answered enough questions, your reputation begins to climb mountains even if you watch by far away.What I mean is that your reputation will go on increasing even if you are inactive for years or even dead.

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Solution

I have came up with these solutions, you may come up with others.

• Reputation should not increase after 5 upvotes.
• Ask users to vote "hard work" than voting for what they found "personally useful".

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This should make reputation a better way of trusting users.

Please suggest your views on this issue.Why do you think the current system is correct or incorrect?

Answer 1

More repo means user has answered more easy questions.

Not necessarily. It just means the person is more active on the site; do you have any correlation that a person can rack up points by answering easy questions? All the easy questions have been pretty much answered.

Plus, for me, answering easy questions is harder than the medium/difficult ones, because you need to translate to something new users can understand. Here is an "Easy" question:

• How can I install Ubuntu without removing Windows?

Look at the amount of effort the answerer put in the answer. If it was so easy to answer every question like that everyone would be doing it.

the fact that "easier to solve" questions have more views than "harder to solve" questions.

Yes, of course. :)

Now who is more trustworthy? one with 25 rep or 500 rep?

Rep is only a guide to tell you how many times that person has helped someone enough to receive a "thanks". If someone has 25 rep it tells me they're new here, if someone has 500 it tells me they're new here but participating. Use the person's post content to determine whether you trust them or not. Good answers contain references to documentation, code, and other places that help with that.

Ask users to vote "hard work" than voting for what they found "personally useful".

If you see a useful post on the site, vote it up. I don't vote based on what's useful to me, I vote based on what's useful to the wider community.