Something that's been bugging me, thoughts?

So something has been bugging me about this site and I thought I would put it out in public.

A while ago I saw a thread about someone who thought there should be a "like" button as well as a "thanks" button. This got me thinking. The little green bars that indicate the reputation that we have may be misleading to new comers.

It seem like the "thanks" button isn't really used as a "hey thanks for the info, it was a big help" button. It's more used like "hey that was hilarious" or "what a clever remark".

It's fine if you want to do that, which is why I think there needs to be a second button.

The rep score should be a score voted by others on the site as to the accuracy and validity of an answer to someone else's question. Some new members to this hobby should be able to see that a reputable source has answered their question. Right now if someone answers their question with a high rep score, it could just mean they are a funny person and the advise could be the wrong advise.

Just thought I'd rant a bit. What are y'alls thoughts on the matter? I'd love to hear opinions.


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You're right...it irks me a bit too..and I think I'm guilty of doing it.:rolleyes:


***ahem****is there a way to modify the site with another "like" button?

I don't see the issue. If a newcomer to the site takes the first bit of advice they read/receive via a public forum from the Internet, shame on them. And if they don't have the maturity or wherewithal to linger a bit and find out who knows their business and who doesn't, again, that's on them. If someone writes something I find amusing, helpful, beneficial, touching, provoking, etc., I'll "thank" them for it. I don't see the point of adding a "Like" button. In the end, what purpose does it really serve anyway? Same thing with the reputation points: regardless of how many a person has, I judge the information being offered and it's accuracy, not how many green lines they have next to or under their name. For instance, if Kevin from NERD joins today and has zero green bars under his name, does that somehow mean he's less knowledgeable or capable of giving an informed and accurate opinion or directive on how to accomplish a husbandry/breeding/keeping related question? Do what you like but again, I don't see the need for it and if people aren't capable of digesting the information that is being offered, regardless of the "flair" as far as green buttons go, I think they might have bigger issues than knowing what information to trust via an Internet forum.

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Originally Posted by youbeyouibei

I don't see the issue. If a newcomer to the site takes the first bit of advice they read/receive via a public forum from the Internet, shame on them. And if they don't have the maturity or wherewithal to linger a bit and find out who knows their business and who doesn't, again, that's on them. If someone writes something I find amusing, helpful, beneficial, touching, provoking, etc., I'll "thank" them for it. I don't see the point of adding a "Like" button. In the end, what purpose does it really serve anyway? Same thing with the reputation points: regardless of how many a person has, I judge the information being offered and it's accuracy, not how many green lines they have next to or under their name. For instance, if Kevin from NERD joins today and has zero green bars under his name, does that somehow mean he's less knowledgeable or capable of giving an informed and accurate opinion or directive on how to accomplish a husbandry/breeding/keeping related question? Do what you like but again, I don't see the need for it and if people aren't capable of digesting the information that is being offered, regardless of the "flair" as far as green buttons go, I think they might have bigger issues than knowing what information to trust via an Internet forum.

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I see where you are coming from. But riddle me this. You are a noob and don't know if you are talking to Brian from BHB or Kevin from NERD or Joseph smith from down the road who bought a ball python yesterday. Wouldn't it be more helpful to see that the person who is giving you advice is reputable? After all, this site is designed to be a think tank for reptiles and such. There should be a more organized way of people needing assistance to recognize good advise from great advise.

Tis true that if you just take the first response that is given and put it into practice, you are setting yourself up for failure. But say only 2 people have you answers and they are completely the opposite. It would be handy to look at their reputation and say "I think I will go with the more experienced guy". That's my angle anyways. Thanks for the responses! I like when people have differing opinions. That's how we learn things about each other.


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Originally Posted by interloc

I see where you are coming from. But riddle me this. You are a noob and don't know if you are talking to Brian from BHB or Kevin from NERD or Joseph smith from down the road who bought a ball python yesterday. Wouldn't it be more helpful to see that the person who is giving you advice is reputable? After all, this site is designed to be a think tank for reptiles and such. There should be a more organized way of people needing assistance to recognize good advise from great advise.

Tis true that if you just take the first response that is given and put it into practice, you are setting yourself up for failure. But say only 2 people have you answers and they are completely the opposite. It would be handy to look at their reputation and say "I think I will go with the more experienced guy". That's my angle anyways. Thanks for the responses! I like when people have differing opinions. That's how we learn things about each other.


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Prior to purchasing my snakes, I went to the library. I then checked out books on the keeping/care/propagation of reptiles, specifically the species I was interested in keeping. I then checked out and read even more books and bought a few of my own, namely: The Complete Ball Python, Kevin McCurley; Pythons of the World by the Barkers and a few others that were less than stellar but offered information nonetheless. This web-site is a great community and a wonderful resource; however, it is not the end-all, be-all of everything reptile related. If people want the quick and easy, maybe they should re-think their decision to purchase and keep an animal or animals that can live 20+ years. Take the time to do the research rather than logging onto a web-site, hacking out some questions about "y does my snake want 2 poo in his water bowl?" and accepting without question the first response that is offered simply because the person has a lot of green bars under their name or a really cool banner that must mean they know what they're talking about, right?! It irritates me that someone wouldn't take the time to do their research properly rather than relying entirely on what is essentially an anonymous conglomeration of individuals who may or may not have any idea at all about what they're talking about. I like BP.net very much and it's a helpful community, for the most part. However, I wouldn't take anything anyone says without a grain of salt and numerous cross-references, regardless of the number of reputation points or lack thereof. That isn't to belittle them or their knowledge, it's being responsible to my animals and the commitment I made as a keeper. Not knocking what you're trying to do here nor am I trying to start anything, just offering my opinion.

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Originally Posted by youbeyouibei

Prior to purchasing my snakes, I went to the library. I then checked out books on the keeping/care/propagation of reptiles, specifically the species I was interested in keeping. I then checked out and read even more books and bought a few of my own, namely: The Complete Ball Python, Kevin McCurley; Pythons of the World by the Barkers and a few others that were less than stellar but offered information nonetheless. This web-site is a great community and a wonderful resource; however, it is not the end-all, be-all of everything reptile related. If people want the quick and easy, maybe they should re-think their decision to purchase and keep an animal or animals that can live 20+ years. Take the time to do the research rather than logging onto a web-site, hacking out some questions about "y does my snake want 2 poo in his water bowl?" and accepting without question the first response that is offered simply because the person has a lot of green bars under their name or a really cool banner that must mean they know what they're talking about, right?! It irritates me that someone wouldn't take the time to do their research properly rather than relying entirely on what is essentially an anonymous conglomeration of individuals who may or may not have any idea at all about what they're talking about. I like BP.net very much and it's a helpful community, for the most part. However, I wouldn't take anything anyone says without a grain of salt and numerous cross-references, regardless of the number of reputation points or lack thereof. That isn't to belittle them or their knowledge, it's being responsible to my animals and the commitment I made as a keeper. Not knocking what you're trying to do here nor am I trying to start anything, just offering my opinion.

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I welcome your opinion. And I also admire your attention to detail about caring for your pets! That is a wonderful thing to hear. But the sad reality is that people aren't as meticulous as you and I. I just think to help the people who aren't there should be a system. I think the system was designed to do that but people on here haven't used the thanks button the way it was intended. Adding a like button would allow people to voice their opinions on how friendly a person is and how knowledgeable they are separately. Just my thoughts.


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I don't see the point in another button. I really don't pay attention to the green bar. I look at how many post the person has. My rep power is a one right now and I couldn't really care. I'm not on here to earn a pat on the back. I'm here to vent, share my opinion, and hopefully learn something new. As a fairly newbie myself I still get quite a bit of pm's asking for advice. I'm new here not to the animal world.

There is a thank, AND reputation bar already. You can use the thank as your like, and the reputation as just that. Also a point I would like to make, is there are plenty of veterans around here, who may not have as many bars as some, but simply don't post as much as others. They have been keeping snakes for god knows how long, and could be some of the most knowledgeable people here. But if you are only judging their "knowledge, and how reliable" they are by green bars, heck what do they know? Simply because they don't post as much? I also agree that people should never take the first thing they read on the internet as the bible. In regards to anything, not just snakes. Any idiot can (and do) post whatever they want, good, bad, true, or untrue. So sticking around and reading, should give you an idea of who knows what. Like say joker x says, soak your bp, and 10 other people say no, don't ever soak your bp. If you have 10 people saying one thing and 1 person another, who are you going to believe, doesn't matter how many bars they have? On another note, it does take awhile to accumulate the green bars, meaning most with a bunch have been around for awhile, and have probably learned/know a thing or two. ;)

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Originally Posted by interloc

I see where you are coming from. But riddle me this. You are a noob and don't know if you are talking to Brian from BHB or Kevin from NERD or Joseph smith from down the road who bought a ball python yesterday. Wouldn't it be more helpful to see that the person who is giving you advice is reputable? After all, this site is designed to be a think tank for reptiles and such. There should be a more organized way of people needing assistance to recognize good advise from great advise.

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That is the great thing and the worst thing about the Internet. Anyone can present themselves as an expert - all voices or posts carry equal weight. It is up to the reader to determine the legitimate and the bogus. No button on the site is going to show who the experts are. I've seen people who have 3,000+ posts, lots of green chicklets and have only one snake. That person may not have actual experience, but they may have spent a lot of time learning, so their voice could be just as valid as Brian or Kevin's on a particular topic. The other curse of the Internet age is that people want knowledge handed to them exactly as they want it, with no work involved. Learning requires work. Things that come cheaply with out work are not valued very much.

I am mostly a lurker on this site because even though I have kept reptiles a good portion of my life but am fairly new to ball pythons and I don't feel I have much advise to offer. However, I am an info junky and try to learn as much as I possibly can. I have read many , many posts on this site and am intelligent enough, most of the time ,to be able to sort out the not so helpful info. I have never really paid any attention to the green bars over people's name with regards to who to listen to and who might be a newbie as myself. I have seen some very good information posted by folks with just 1 green bar and I have seen some incredibly bad and rude comments by folks with several green bars. I too have clicked the thank you button to someone that has given me good advice, pictures I have enjoyed looking at and touching stories. Basically just thanking the person posting for their post. I guess, I am not sure what the difference would be with having two buttons. Are you saying that you would click "thank you" when you receive good information and click "like" if you enjoyed pics, stories, etc?

I don't know how anyone else uses the rep/thanks buttons, but *I* give a "thanks" click for posts that I think are funny, clever, etc... I give Reputation for posts that contain a wealth of information.

People used to just have the reputation to click, and so everyone used that for anything they wanted to give a point on. Once the 'thanks' option appeared, people seemed to use it instead. So they seem interchangable.

And with this site, if a newbie asks something like "Can I keep my boa and ball and turtle in the same tank"... even if a person does post with "Sure, that's a grand idea, I do it all the time!", there's always going to be the larger group of people who post very soon saying "No, bad idea". If the newbie chooses to believe the one person vs the group, then most likely, they were going to do the way they wanted, regardless of what they read.

And it's not our job to hold the hand of every single person who wants a reptile. At some point you have to realize that it's their own responsibility to research properly. We can't go to their house, sit them down in a chair and explain out all the nuances of keeping herps, requiring them to learn before they buy. We can answer questions, offer advice and encouragment, but we can't ensure that no one ever makes a mistake with their choices.

There are a thousand different ways to "like" and "thanks" and "rep"....and a thousand different ways people THINK it should be done. We'll never be able to please everyone. And the mechanics of the site are not set up in a way that all one needs is a "good idea" to make it work. Wish it were that simple, but it's not.

So it is what it is. Everyone reading will give as much weight to those silly little green squares as they believe they deserve. Personally, I think they're a nice indicator of someone's depth of involvement in the site. What does "good reputation" mean anyhow, in this context? A nice person? A helpful person? A person with tons of knowledge about caring for reptiles? A person with lots of animals? A person with positive business reviews? Any of these might be true...and none of them are completely inclusive or exclusive of the others. In short....those little green squares don't mean anything other than someone has spent a lot of time participating in some moderately positive manner on the site.

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Originally Posted by interloc

But riddle me this.

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http://polls.amctv.com/img/data/1036-309x316.jpg

It doesn't bother me at all. Actually, I am happy to see the rep system getting used more. Who cares why someone thanks a post. I use thanks as my way of thanking someone for a great post.

In my opinion, thanks is a great way to build your rep. Rarely do I see people getting lots of thanks for clever comments that don't have any sort of valuable info in them. Sure it happens, but more often than not there is some good info mixed in with the funny business. It has its way of evening itself out so that the rep reflects the quality of the info that particular person posts on the site. I've never seen it do the opposite. Have you?

Back in the day, only positive rep could build your rep bar. People rarely used the reputation button, but people were always willing to thank good posts. I like this system much better than the old one. A new button would be overkill. People barely use the two existing ones as it is.

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Originally Posted by youbeyouibei

Prior to purchasing my snakes, I went to the library. I then checked out books on the keeping/care/propagation of reptiles, specifically the species I was interested in keeping. I then checked out and read even more books and bought a few of my own, namely: The Complete Ball Python, Kevin McCurley; Pythons of the World by the Barkers and a few others that were less than stellar but offered information nonetheless. This web-site is a great community and a wonderful resource; however, it is not the end-all, be-all of everything reptile related. If people want the quick and easy, maybe they should re-think their decision to purchase and keep an animal or animals that can live 20+ years. Take the time to do the research rather than logging onto a web-site, hacking out some questions about "y does my snake want 2 poo in his water bowl?" and accepting without question the first response that is offered simply because the person has a lot of green bars under their name or a really cool banner that must mean they know what they're talking about, right?! It irritates me that someone wouldn't take the time to do their research properly rather than relying entirely on what is essentially an anonymous conglomeration of individuals who may or may not have any idea at all about what they're talking about. I like BP.net very much and it's a helpful community, for the most part. However, I wouldn't take anything anyone says without a grain of salt and numerous cross-references, regardless of the number of reputation points or lack thereof. That isn't to belittle them or their knowledge, it's being responsible to my animals and the commitment I made as a keeper. Not knocking what you're trying to do here nor am I trying to start anything, just offering my opinion.

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thats great for people like you and me but not everybody thinks before they act. a lot of people buy animals that they know nothing about. and then those people come here and look for answers. if someone has a big rep bar you would think they are knowledgeable when in fact thats not the case. you would look to them for awnsers but if they onlyhave a high rep because there funny then that animal suffers. i just think the button was put there for a reason and it should be used for that reason.

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Originally Posted by TerrieL

I am mostly a lurker on this site because even though I have kept reptiles a good portion of my life but am fairly new to ball pythons and I don't feel I have much advise to offer. However, I am an info junky and try to learn as much as I possibly can. I have read many , many posts on this site and am intelligent enough, most of the time ,to be able to sort out the not so helpful info. I have never really paid any attention to the green bars over people's name with regards to who to listen to and who might be a newbie as myself. I have seen some very good information posted by folks with just 1 green bar and I have seen some incredibly bad and rude comments by folks with several green bars. I too have clicked the thank you button to someone that has given me good advice, pictures I have enjoyed looking at and touching stories. Basically just thanking the person posting for their post. I guess, I am not sure what the difference would be with having two buttons. Are you saying that you would click "thank you" when you receive good information and click "like" if you enjoyed pics, stories, etc?

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exactly. if someone gives good advice you say thanks if someone says something funny or post some cool pics that you "like" you click the like button. it would just make it a little easier for people that are new to herps to tell good info from not so good info. and yes i agree some people with very few bars might have and been keeping reptiles for over 20 years. but they gain green bars fast because they would be thanked for there intelligent and helpful information.

If people think my answer is right just bc of how many green bars i have then they need to learn how the site works lol. Granted, i do feel i help give good advice but its not like thats all i do.

I have alot of green bars because i post on here alot and because im rediculously funny. I cant help it if peole wanna thank me for being funny... and awesome! :D

yes and the point thats trying to be made is that there should be a like button for how awesome you are and a thanks button for all the intelligent and helpful posts that you make.

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Originally Posted by Rydasvp

yes and the point thats trying to be made is that there should be a like button for how awesome you are and a thanks button for all the intelligent and helpful posts that you make.

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But we already have two buttons for this exact thing. Thanks is for how awesome you are and +rep is for all the intelligent info.

Rep has a much higher weight than Thanks. Thanks give one point and rep can give many more depending on the rep level of the person who gave you the rep.


I guess you just don't like it that thanks add to someones rep? :/

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Originally Posted by Rydasvp

yes and the point thats trying to be made is that there should be a like button for how awesome you are and a thanks button for all the intelligent and helpful posts that you make.

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There is as Kaorte pointed out^ :)

im still kinda new to posting and was unaware of a rep up button. i now assume it must be the +R- button. i retract my earlier statements and apologise.

Thanks everyone for posting. If we have 2 buttons that both contribute to the rep score, can we not just make 1 for upping peoples rep and one for thanking them for a funny post. All I was intending to do with this post is convey that the rep score is misleading to new ball lovers who are looking for credible sources.

It's interesting to see both sides of this discussion. I thank you all for posting and have fun balling!


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