Reputation and Badges [7]

I'm over repped :) I don't even often visit the threads you work on, except to see the impressive work some are doing. I don't have those skills. I try to find something I know, or can google for a fix. I wouldn't dare offer advice when I am not 100% certain I know of which I speak.

I believe if you are well liked, and friendly, you tend to get rep for what help you do provide. I don't mean it's undeserving, it's just not the high level some work at. People see you post something helpful, and they rep you. They don't (I think/hope) rep just anything they see by you just to rep you.

If you constantly provide high level help, you don't get the rep you deserve because it is what you do every day. If you are mostly too busy during the week, and can only really help 1 or 2 days, then your help catches peoples eyes. It's a strange dichotomy.

If one was to consider any help that is useful to the OP as deserving of "praise", then it is all good. If however, there is any animosity, or condescension because someone has a lot of rep, but doesn't "really help", then that is sad. Surely you don't get a lot of rep just because you are social, there must be something that was rep-able, even if just in the rep givers eyes.

Do I deserve to have more medals then some who work on the hard threads every day? Not in my own opinion. But at the same time I don't think a great deal of the rep was completely undeserved, but rather that some are under repped.

I am always happy to see rep, it is a sign that someone appreciated something I posted. It doesn't get you into any extra areas, or give you special privileges, so there is no harm. Once you have a medal, then two, then more rep is nice, but I hope it doesn't define someone. Just as a lack of same shouldn't.

People aren't stupid, they know who the "Stars" are here. Respect and admiration is earned always, whether it is finding a program for an OP, helping an OP with an answer that "everyone knows", or solving a heinous BSOD problem.

I'm sure admins see who is getting repped, and if they thought it undeserved, it wouldn't continue. But except for having a "weighted rep" system (what a nightmare to administer!), then rep for a simple answer, and rep for a 2 day marathon fix will show the same, but will never be equal. A (long winded) Guy :)

People like Jan (JMH) and Ken (zigzag3143) work hard in the BSOD section. I'm not really high ranked nor am I much of a guru but I tend to post in the Crashes and Debugging forum. I used to post in all types of different threads until I started to analyse dump files. Since then I've just been helping out with the BSOD threads. There's so much work in that forum that it's hard to actually post anywhere else.

gregrocker said:

Well I most definitely was not thinking of you Bill when I puzzled over how I cannot remember many threads which some with astronomical rep have helped in. Your help is superb and even though it's in another section I come across it regularly.

Jaidyn I know how you feel about a sub-forum requiring all of your time as I once could move in and out of Install, General, Performance, Updates and Backup - but now can struggle for hours to get out of Install to General.

Oh, I didn't take it personally, but I have thought of it. I'm not shy, so I posted my thoughts. Don't worry Greg

A Guy

I think I also share my view on this point. As far as I can see, I am in the top ten rep achievers onboard. I also see that I have more rep points than those persons who are much much more knowledgeable than me. Sometimes i also think like Bill that I am ovrreped.

I have earned a huge rep , by making sigs. All the times i cannot browse through all the threads, coz of photoshopping, still, I try to put something in the installation threads, when Greg and Ray are offline, lol. I also support in the resource replacement related issues, when Jerry is offline.

So thus I have earned all those. Most probably I really dont deserve it.

You know Arc, I always see good help from you. And you support Seven Forums. I think, like any community, we all do what we can, in our own ways. We can recognize that some do the harder work, but it is everyone's contributions, as a whole, that make up Seven Forums. Bottom line is most people get the help they need, and that's what it's all about. I am of the opinion that if you can have a little fun, and make some friends along the way, then it is an even better forum. A Guy

A Guy said:

You know Arc, I always see good help from you. And you support Seven Forums. I think, like any community, we all do what we can, in our own ways. We can recognize that some do the harder work, but it is everyone's contributions, as a whole, that make up Seven Forums. Bottom line is most people get the help they need, and that's what it's all about. I am of the opinion that if you can have a little fun, and make some friends along the way, then it is an even better forum. A Guy

Well put Bill and Archie. I feel good when a suggestion of mine actually fixes something, it happened once, I think. Rep or not, it is fun to interact with people and provide some help. My fav is one where an OP was having serious issues with a laptop, so I finally asked if the thing was plugged in. You can guess "The Rest of The Story".