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wilykcat.5864

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It's a complicated post count.

I don't think anyone knows exactly how the maths works but you get points for posting replies and starting topics, for getting thumbs up and helpful responses and for getting badges. But getting thumbs up and helpfuls are basically a result of posting, and badges are a result of posting and getting reactions. So ultimately the more you post the more reactions and badges you get and the more points you get.

@Randulf.7614 said:If you mean the stars, the simplest way of looking at it is your level of participation on the forums. The more stars, the more you interact (comments, replies etc) on the forums (max 4 stars)

For some reason points only show up on the mobile version, and only on your profile. But I'm pretty sure it's the same system as the stars. Probably getting stars is based on how many points you have, but I'm not sure how many are required for each one and there seems to be a time gate too.

(In case you're curious you currently have 17,070 points.)

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@Danikat.8537 said:It's a complicated post count.

I don't think anyone knows exactly how the maths works but you get points for posting replies and starting topics, for getting thumbs up and helpful responses and for getting badges. But getting thumbs up and helpfuls are basically a result of posting, and badges are a result of posting and getting reactions. So ultimately the more you post the more reactions and badges you get and the more points you get.

@Randulf.7614 said:If you mean the stars, the simplest way of looking at it is your level of participation on the forums. The more stars, the more you interact (comments, replies etc) on the forums (max 4 stars)

For some reason points only show up on the mobile version, and only on your profile. But I'm pretty sure it's the same system as the stars. Probably getting stars is based on how many points you have, but I'm not sure how many are required for each one and there seems to be a time gate too.

Aha explains why I couldn't find anything on the desktop version. Never noticed those before, but then again I've only looked at the mobile settings once

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@Hesione.9412 said:Where do you see your points?

You have to be using the mobile version of the forum, then you go to your profile (or anyone else's, it's public) and it shows them. But I can't remember how to switch to that version (I know it can't be done but I can't find the option anywhere). I think it's the default if you use a phone to visit the forum though.

I can see both because in normal years I'm away from home a lot so I have the forum bookmarked on my phone and use that when I can't get to a PC, or times like now when I want to compare the two versions.

(BTW you have 982 points.)

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@Danikat.8537 said:

@Hesione.9412 said:Where do you see your points?

You have to be using the mobile version of the forum, then you go to your profile (or anyone else's, it's public) and it shows them. But I can't remember how to switch to that version (I know it can't be done but I can't find the option anywhere). I think it's the default if you use a phone to visit the forum though.

I can see both because in normal years I'm away from home a lot so I have the forum bookmarked on my phone and use that when I can't get to a PC, or times like now when I want to compare the two versions.

(BTW you have 982 points.)

Ah, thank you. I only visit the forums on my computer. I was hunting all over for them in my profile.

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Vanilla Forums Reputation System

TL&DR: The points are some kind of a reputation/karma score. You do something good, the score rises. You do something bad, the score decreases. There are a couple of factors that influence the reputation score directly, for example:

  • Thumbs up
  • Helpful
  • Ranks
  • Thumbs down (old system)

The system should function as a guidance, to see how trustworthy a poster/writer is.


In the link, it is also listed that promoted by a moderator adds positive reputation score. There is a 'promoted' score in our profile, but I have not found anyone yet with anything but 0.

We do get a warning-level when our posts/threads get moderated. Maybe the warning-level has a negative influence on our reputation score. Just a guess though.

Is the reputation-system useful? Sort of. Not every writer with a high score is a nice person. Not every writer with a low score is a bad person. When I want to investigate the nature of a questionable post/thread, I usually have a look on the Helpfuls, Thumbs Up and the total count of Discussions and Posts. I also have a quick look on the discussions page quickly, to check if there are significantly more discussions started than visible.

Long story short, there is no 100 % guarantee. Some writers have personal fan-bases which are more likely to give them Thumbs Up or even Helpfuls, even if the comment in question would normally not deserve it (common sense). In addition, there are people on this board who Thumbs Up/Helpful ironic comments to highlight them. ANet disabled the Thumbs Down feature years ago, so there is no feature to mark a bad post.

PS: My reputation score is only 1.900.

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I'm kind of new to the forums which explains why I have 200 something points. I dont get why the point system still exist evenknow it is useless. Just like one of those silly forgotten state laws.

?I like the way the stars look on my profile though just for the aesthetic.?


Maybe it had a purpose many years ago and then it dissolved just like Blizzard entertainment forum trust levels and mvps. I should make a post of forgotten forum features and useless forum profile features and statuses but not on these forums though.

Each online forum has its quirks. ?

I dont have a fan base either. I rather be my own individual self on the forums and not care about how others think of me.

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@wilykcat.5864 said:I'm kind of new to the forums which explains why I have 200 something points. I dont get why the point system still exist evenknow it is useless. Just like one of those silly forgotten state laws.

?I like the way the stars look on my profile though just for the aesthetic.?


Maybe it had a purpose many years ago and then it dissolved just like Blizzard entertainment forum trust levels and mvps. I should make a post of forgotten forum features and useless forum profile features and statuses but not on these forums though.

Each online forum has its quirks. ?

I dont have a fan base either. I rather be my own individual self on the forums and not care about how others think of me.

It's not that easy to change Vanilla forum features. Vanilla also tends to 'bug out' quite often.

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@"HnRkLnXqZ.1870" said:I also have a quick look on the discussions page quickly, to check if there are significantly more discussions started than visible.

I wouldn't use that as a way of judging posters, because the count isn't accurate.

The first time I looked at my profile, when I hadn't created any discussions at all, it showed I'd created one. I never got an answer about how or why that happened but I kept an eye on it for a while and the number of 'phantom discussions' crept up over time. As far as I know I've only had 2 or 3 topics deleted but the list on my profile only shows 81 and the count says I've created 110.

Also posts can be deleted for quoting or "directly refering to" posts which break the rules, so anyone responding to a thread with posts that are going to be removed runs the risk of also having their posts removed. You don't get an actual warning or get 'infraction points' for that, but it does mean you end up with a post deleted. Especially if the whole topic is deleted.

Personally I prefer to judge posts entirely by the content of the post itself. The reactions can be useful as a quick way of gauging general opinion among posters, but I don't think anyone's opinion is more valid just because they post enough to collect lots of reactions. Or maybe I'm still put off the idea after spending time on forums where that was pretty much the sole deciding factor in arguments. If someone with 'forum rank 3' says yellow is their favourite colour and someone with 'forum rank 8' says they prefer blue then the admins would enforce the decision that blue is better than yellow because the "more experienced" poster has determined that to be the case. (That's not a real argument, but the real arguments were equally subjective.)

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@Danikat.8537 said:

@HnRkLnXqZ.1870 said:I also have a quick look on the discussions page quickly, to check if there are significantly more discussions started than visible.

I wouldn't use that as a way of judging posters, because the count isn't accurate.

The first time I looked at my profile, when I hadn't created any discussions at all, it showed I'd created one. I never got an answer about how or why that happened but I kept an eye on it for a while and the number of 'phantom discussions' crept up over time. As far as I know I've only had 2 or 3 topics deleted but the list on my profile only shows 81 and the count says I've created 110.

When a forum member reports a post for some reason it counts as a discussion.

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