MGoPoints - Benefits and Problems?

Enough mgopoints allows one to bypass purgatory altogether.

Like other have stated above, the point system makes me post with caution. I'll admit I re-read my posts so that they make sense in fear that I will cause the wrath of the others to rain down on me. In that way I think it creates more coherent and quality posts. But, on the other hand there are trolls like Emo who makes that a moot point.

I think it's mostly pointless. And squeezes out discussion. There are certain topics I just don't even bother breaching, because I don't want to deal with the flame arguments and attacks. A cap for the points seems like a good idea, because after you've hit X, what does more really matter? Newer poster are eventually going to be 5,000 point posters. And the idea of limiting the number of points on can up or down in a day would be nice, because it would add value, and you'd have to think about doing it, just like you have to think about what you post. The only time it's useful is when there's a BOARD MELTDOWN...the posting restrictions by Brian after an evil game or something. It keeps the trolls from other schools and such that are JUST coming on to say "ha ha" from getting on, and pissing off an already riled fanbase. We can fly off the handle on our own, we don't need the help, thanks. Frankly, I might increase that threshold a little bit...how much to post original threads, and keeping them out when things hit the fan more often...(this week wouldn't have been bad...no offense to those who are reasonable posters, or who were using reasoned arguments, but seeing all these 3 digit posters attack Magnus over Trent was kinda like watching all the jet airplanes attack Godzilla all at once...or King Kong, if you felt Magnus lost...either or). I've found that someone who is new, but is reasonable, if they have some hot info that just has to be posted, can just post in a hot active thread (game open thread, etc)..."hey, would someone open up a thread on X, so I can comment on it...I have breaking info on a recruit, etc". It generally works.

MGoPoints simply gauge the quality of posts you can expect to come from said user.

I set the criteria (only read posts with ~ +5 or ~ -5 or more points) and pretty much get the gist. Note using these criteria I would also not read 99% of my own posts. In general I agree with GoBlueScott. If I were to change the system, I would change the threshold, change the accountability/transparency and increase the moderation ability as point totals increase. Overall my Meta talk would trend much more toward the Drupal issues and deficiencies than the point system - which is a kludge until greater open source CMS technology catches up with the blogosphere.

What drives me crazy about MGoPoints is that someone can post an absolutely inane, poorly-written, and trivial blindly pro-RR post and get +10 within 5 minutes, yet someone posts a well-reasoned, extensive post that criticizes RR or something to do with Michigan football, and they'll get -20. It seems our community values cheerleading more than actual discourse. MGoPoints should not be used to push the entire discussion into one particular point of view. What happened to Magnus this week was pretty embarrassing from the standpoint of the board as a whole. He was making an argument in a pretty coherent way, putting well-reasoned posts in between people negbanging him into oblivion. Unfortunately, it's not what the masses wanted to hear. So, bombs away. Luckily he has MGoPoints to spare, but it was still ridiculous. It just seems to me people around here need to get the point that it's OK and entirely possible to not like RR and still be a passionate Michigan fan. This whole "You have to be All In! or to hell with you" stuff is really rather nonsensical, isn't it?

How about settling on the top 3 or 4 reasons for up votes and down votes and give the community the ability to cast votes based on those reasons. As an example, a post could receive +1 for being funny and -1 for poor grammar.

You should get negative 1000 points if you jaunt over from another blog just to tells us were stupid.

I'm just disappointed nobody has posted the Six Zero collectors items. Available in the VIP MGoStore for those with over 2000 points.

Points have 2 purposes: 1) Prevent immediate sign up and posting of topics, intended to prevent trolling. 2) Alert Brian or mods to meltdowns and massively negative posters for possible Banhammers. That's it. Caring about points is stupid.

I would humbly suggest that a means to identify voters should be offered. While most of the time, folks won't really care why their post had a net +2 or -1, the negative pile-on's would likely cease immediately if users had to identify themselves as someone who voted a harmless post down. There's no harm in dropping heavy negatives because people disagree with a post, but the flow of information (which is what blogs are about) slows when folks are deterred from even bothering.