# Reputation All Wusoup members are asked to please help protect Wusoup's [[About/Mission|mission]] by: - [[#Reporting users|Reporting]] users that might be breaking the [[About/Community Standards#Rules|community rules]] - [[#Community ratings|Rating]] users based on the [[About/Community Standards|community standards]] ## Reporting users If you see someone breaking Wusoup's [[About/Community Standards#Rules|community rules]] or that you think _might be_ breaking the rules - please use the **Report** button on their profile! 🙏 This'll open a popup asking you for more info (you can cancel). When you report someone - **nothing bad will automatically happen to them**! It just brings them to my attention so that I can manually investigate. If they *are* breaking rules, I'll handle the situation appropriately: - Accidental, minor, and first-time rules violations will generally get a **friendly warning** from me. - Intentional, serious, and repeat rules violations may lead to a temporary **account suspension** or **permanent ban**. Once I've investigated a report you made, I'll send you a message to let you know. You will earn [[Usage/Karma|karma]] for each helpful user report you submit. ## Community ratings Each member has a community rating determined by the [[#When to upvote|upvotes]] and [[#When to downvote|downvotes]] that they've received from other users, e.g.: ![[Assets/ss-your-rep.png]] New users will have an **unknown** ratings until they've received at least 5-10 votes. Votes from highly-rated users have a bigger impact, and votes decay over time if the relevant users no longer interact. ### When to upvote **Please upvote** high-quality users that: - Have put **effort** into their profile and/or messages. - Are positive, kind, or otherwise well-aligned with Wusoup's [[About/Mission#|mission]] and [[About/Community Standards|community standards]]. You will earn [[Usage/Karma|karma]] for each user you up or down vote. ### When to downvote **Please downvote** low-quality users that: - Have put **little/no effort** into their profile and/or messages. - Are aggressive, rude, or otherwise poorly aligned with Wusoup's [[About/Mission|mission]] and [[About/Community Standards|community standards]]. You will earn [[Usage/Karma|karma]] for each user you up or down vote. ### The motivation for ratings Wusoup's ratings are _not_ intended to be a popularity contest, or a way for users to punish those they disagree with or even personally dislike. Wusoup believes that diversity of life experience and **diversity of opinion** are valuable. Social bubbles and echo chambers aren't healthy - it's important to be exposed to different kinds of people, and to different ideas. And it's important to feel safe to have [[About/Mission#6. Wusoup is about **meaning**|meaningful]] conversations - those _most_ likely to be challenging. We accept the challenge here. Not with naivety, but out of conviction that *it matters*. Disagreement is allowed, even encouraged - so long as it's [[About/Mission#3. It's okay to **respectfully disagree**|respectful]]. So what are the community ratings for? To help encourage everyone to *be respectful* and to uphold the unusual [[About/Community Standards|community standards]]. Ratings are a reminder that we [[About/Mission#8. Wusoup is about **taking responsibility**|do challenge ourselves]] to maintain high standards of civility and respect, and to treat this community as more than a mindless, low-effort distraction. Wusoup's ratings are not intended to *stifle* individuality, genuineness, or disagreement - but exactly the opposite. They're there to help enforce a *minimal set of rules* needed to *safely explore these* in an environment that's traditionally super low-trust (anonymous internet chat). There *are* downsides to having ratings, including: 1. People might _feel pressure_ to somehow perform, or to not "be themselves". 2. People might _feel judged_, possibly even unwelcome. 3. People might _feel judgmental_, being asked to evaluate others. 4. People might _feel worried_ that they'll be unfairly evaluated, or punished for somehow being different. These concerns are real, and justified! There are unavoidable trade-offs that with any such voting system. The hope is that the benefits (far) outweigh the costs. And I _do_ sincerely believe that with the right culture and design - we can absolutely achieve that. For more info see Wusoup's [[About/Mission|mission]], [[About/Community Standards|community standards]], and further questions below. ### What happens if you are downvoted It's not the end of the world!: 1. Getting a poor rating may be *more difficult* than you expect. 2. Getting a poor rating might be *less detrimental* than you expect. For **(1)**, Wusoup's community ratings are calculated with the expectation that: - A non-trivial proportion of votes will be intentionally or unintentionally [[#What happens if you're unfairly downvoted?|misused]]. - Even the highest quality users *will* attract some non-trivial proportion of downvotes, again for justified or unjustified reasons. So perfection is *not expected*, nor realistic. Especially since we're specifically trying to encourage [[About/Mission#6. Wusoup is about **meaning**|meaningful]] discussion and even [[About/Mission#3. It's okay to **respectfully disagree**|respectful disagreement]]. As for **(2)**, having a "divisive" or even "poor" rating does not prevent you from participating in the community. So long as you haven't outright broken the [[About/Community Standards#Rules|rules]], your account remains fully functional. The downside to having a poor rating is that your profile might have _reduced visibility_. Some (not all!) users may choose to filter their experience and see only users with an established and/or consistently positive community rating. Conversely, users that enjoy debating or engaging in challenging conversations might even *seek out* more divisive or controversial profiles! Not everyone is looking for the same thing, and Wusoup isn't intended to be an echo chamber. > [!warning] WARNING re: multiple accounts > Please **do not** create a new account to try reset your community rating, that's [[About/Community Standards#9. Don't create **multiple accounts**|against the rules]] and may lead to permanent banning. > > If you believe there might be a problem with your rating, please [[About/Contact|contact me]] instead. ### How to avoid downvotes If you're consistently attracting a **large proportion** of downvotes, it might be worth reviewing Wusoup's [[About/Mission#|mission]] and [[About/Community Standards|community standards]]. Some common things to check: - Have you **put effort** into your profile and messages? Sparse profiles and short/generic messages are likely to attract downvotes. - Are you posting **controversial content** to your profile, or engaging in **controversial debates**? These are *not* against the rules (if done [[About/Mission#3. It's okay to **respectfully disagree**|respectfully]]), but are of course more likely to attract downvotes. Note that Wusoup makes a distinction between **breaking the rules** and **being downvoted**. And it makes a distinction between: - Users that are **divisive** (get along with some but not others). - Users that are **universally** downvoted (get along with no one). The first category might for example include folks that like to debate or post controversial content. If that's you, then a **divisive** rating might be appropriate and nothing to worry about. Again, not everyone needs to get along - this isn't meant to be a monoculture! See also [[Usage/Your Profile#How to create a great profile|how to create a great profile]]. ### What happens if you're unfairly downvoted? Basically, this isn't something that you should need to worry about. Wusoup's community ratings are calculated with the expectations that: 1. Not everyone will get along, and that's okay. 2. Some proportion of users will unknowingly or even maliciously misuse up/down votes. A few details: - Ratings from poorly-rated users don't count much. - Ratings from banned users don't count at all. - All ratings decay over time unless you continue interacting with the rater. In practice this means that positive ratings tend to linger, while negative ratings tend to fade.