The New Tagging System Further Erodes My "Enjoyment" of MGoBlog

There was a time in the "old days" when I actually liked this site.  I discovered this blog during in its early days and at that time it was the only source of Michigan Football material on a daily basis.

Then things began to change...

The whole points and neg bang thing has largely ruined my posting experience. I find people post stuff simply to get up votes, basically kissing up to the board. There are too many "clever" and redundant posters. Restraint is not a virtue among many. Gaining points for simply posting encourages lost of meaningless comments.

At one time I had another account [I suppose I technically still have it] that I had from day one of the "account" era and when points came on board I thought they were a bad idea that would change how people post. It did. But I did manage to accumulate a rather large amount of points over time, a five figure number. Then I had a bad day and someone on the board annoyed me so I ended up spouting off and getting justifiably neg-banged. I am a big boy and can take my medicine, but then I got an automated message that because my one message had received a threshold number of negs [I am still not sure what that number is], that I would be reduced in points below the point where I was a "trusted user."

That pissed me off enough that I walked away from the blog for a while. I have a busy life and it was fairly easy after the first few days not to read the blog, but then during the jihad, came back but did not post anything, and because of that discovered that the rest of my points were being taken away because I had not posted for too long a period.

If in any way points = reputation, then the automatic systems of the blog had completely obliterated my reputation over one hissy post. I walked away again. Then after a while I thought I might start fresh and just read the news and dip into the diaries and the board only if something compelling came up worth commenting on. After pretty much a full season with my new identity, I have managed just a 150 or so points, have no reputation on the board and do not care anymore.

I used to enjoy posting in this community and as I am self employed, I enjoyed the regular banter and dialogue that the board used to provide me. But points and negging has really made me shrug when it comes to the diaries and board and in some ways to the blog as a whole. I read each main page story and sometime have a look at the comments, but for the most part, if it were not that this is the still the best place for Michigan Football news I would have said good riddance a while ago.  Ever since Hoke has been hired Brian seems to be pissy [although in fairness that is starting to diminish].  Over all, though, it has been this stupid points system that has slowly ruined my experience of this web site.

I can understand the need to self police the board and comments, but if Brian is intent on making this system work there needs to be helpful categories such as:

troll, flame bate, idiotic, poorly written, repetitive, makes no sense, insightful, smart, funny, interesting, well written, informative, well researched, sublime, elegant, nails it and the like.

Also, it should take a number of negative grades to make something disappear, something like -5 or -10. That way it encourages people to both rate content and write stuff that people want to read [or just not write in the first place].

There should be no points simply for posting. Reputation should be based entirely on the evaluation of the community.

Like I said, the whole points thing has soured me on the this blog and this board, perhaps irreparably. The exceptions as posters are Misopigon, Magnus and Ctitown...all of whom I find actually add something when they post...

[Edit: now for some reason that i cannot figure out, I can no longer rate other posts, even if I wanted to...]