(07-07-2012 08:24 AM)SparoHawk Wrote: Well, I understand what you mean.
As I see it, you can thank anyone for anything. You'll eventually find yourself thanking one user in particular multiple times. However, you will not go hunting down for all of that user's posts just to thank him on every single one. Mainly because you won't feel the need to thank him for a post where he describes his graduation experience, or w/e.
Now, thanks will come and go as the threads come and go, but, reputation stays on the user profile as a permanent mark on how helpful or troublesome he is for the community. There is not a "No thanks" button, so the only way you can let know people of someone who is a troll or of similar kind is by going to his profile and giving him a negative rating with an added comment, something the "Thanks" button cannot do.
And there is also the fact that you can thank someone and not care for his reputation. It just, kind of, different commodities to be used individually.
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Now, I'd like to know why you can give more than one rating to any user.
I don't understand your example. If I post something that I need help with and get that help, or see someone helping someone else, or just doing something good then that's what the Thanks button is for. I don't understand why I would have to dig through someone's posts to give thanks. The way I understand it, if you see someone doing good, say Thanks. That's why we have the button.
The only thing I don't like is elitism and weighted reputation, namely a new user who is trying to learn the ropes, and some dickhead with 1,000 reputation comes in and knocks him way down into the red. That can and will alienate that user and make him feel unwelcomed. Believe me, I've seen it happen. That's kind of why I viewed the Thanks system as the lesser of the two evils. You get a thanks for doing something worthy, and once you get a whole lot of Thanks you cannot exercise that weight onto a new user to disenfranchise them with a massive kick of negative. If you make it so no negatives can be given, then what you end up with is an echo chamber of sorts where cliques of people will constantly boost one another to exorbitant amounts of rep for no reason other than to fellate their own egos.
edit: haha Admin repped me.
