The next version of ..::LvL will a "Reputation" system of some kind, below is the current thinking, which is open to feedback.

How to earn points:

• All members start with 0 (zero) Reputation.
• If a members comment is "up voted" 3 times, the member will get 1 Reputation point.
• If a comment is up voted to 6 points, another 2 Reputation points are award (3 in total now).
• Make it to 9 up votes, and pick up another 3 Reputation points.
• What to do after 9 votes? Have a break, say until 18 votes, then add 3 more points or should it be 9 points?

The problem is balance. One very good comment could land a single member with a huge Reputation level. I'm learning towards after 9 up votes, every extra 9 votes = 3 Reputation points.

How to lose Reputation points:

• 3 down votes will mean lose 1 Reputation point.
• 6 down votes = another point lost.
• 9 down votes = another point lost.
• More than 9, no more points lost.

No member can go below 0 Reputation. Again, it is a balance issue. Sure, a bad post is a bad post, but a person should not be too badly affected by a single bad post. A maximum of 3 lost points feels about right to me.

This is only a draft / idea at this stage.

Pretty impressive Tig :D.

reputation = total likes - total dislikes

I think it doesn't need to be more complicated than that, although you could still use a similar add/subtract extra points every 5 likes/dislikes in a comment. The flaws I see in your calculations are:

like you said: the balance issue

essentially the earlier you rate a comment the less it counts

it gives bias towards likes over dislikes with your scoring: why should likes have more gravity than dislikes? Do negative opinions not count as much as positive ones?

Just food for thought. I'm no statistician/mathematician so my opinion on the matter doesn't count much.

=(E)^ - thumbs up - for muffin :)

I guess I was trying to prevent someone from getting a high reputation from simply having a friend "up vote" each of their comments. By limiting the first reputation point to after 3 up votes. A honestly good comment will easily reach 3 up votes.

The same goes for the down votes. If "Person A" does not like "Member X", it is easy for "Person A" lower the reputation of "Member X" by simply down voting each comment. However, with a "after 3 votes" system, it is a bit harder for this to happen.

On OA forums we have "cakes". It's hard to abuse since you can only demote or promote one cake every 120 hours, so it makes it hold a lot of weight. Some overreact and take the "cakes" too seriously, naturally spotlighting a lot of douchery.

That's a good point Tig.

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Then what I'd suggest is simply make the calculation per comment exponential...
reputation = (comment likes)^2 - (comment dislikes)^2

So the following would be like - dislike differences and the points they'd give:

1 - 0: 1 point
2 - 0: 4 points
3 - 0: 9 points
4 - 0: 16 points
4 - 1: 15 point
4 - 2: 12 points
4 - 3: 7 points
4 - 4: 0 points
3 - 4: -7 points
2 - 4: -12 points
1 - 4: -15 points
0 - 4: -16 points

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Alternatively you could make the calculation factorial...
reputation = (comment likes)! - (comment dislikes)!

So let's say you've got a like - dislike difference of one, you'd get:
= 1! - 0!
= 1 - 1
= 0

However if you've got something like 5 likes and 2 dislikes, then:
= 5! - 2!
= (5 4 3 2 1) - (2 * 1)
= 120 - 2
= 118

Similarly:
2 - 0: 1 point
3 - 0: 5 points
4 - 0: 23 points

0 - 2: -1 point
0 - 3: -5 points
0 - 4: -23 points
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Also, it reminds me of the system used on www.quakelive.com/forum ...

Reputation allows you to approve/disprove a user right from clicking on a star at the bottom left of one of their comments. However, you need to have a certain number of posts before your reputation votes actually count, and you can't rep the same user until some or other limitation is reached (not sure if it's a time limit or number of extra posts made).

There was a comment vote system in addition to that (it has since been removed) that allowed you to 'find a post helpful' which would work independently of the reputation system and would print 'x out of x people found this post helpful'.

The time based system is interesting, but I can see some issues with it.

There is no reason why a persons reputation level needs to be a small number (as per my original suggestion), but I think an exponential increase (as themuffinator suggested) maybe a little too much. Instead, how about a compound system. For example:
1 vote = 1 reputation
2 votes = 2 more rep (total: 3)
3 votes = 3 more rep (total: 6)
4 votes = 4 more rep (total: 10)

So, it would work the same as themuffinator suggested, but compound instead. As per the "5 likes, 2 dislikes" example:
(1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5) - (1 + 2) = 12 rep

I was also thinking of integrating the Reputation into the "votes" as well. For example, on the new vote system you will be able to see votes from people with a high Reputation, then votes from "everyone". This would be a little like on Rotten Tomatoes, where you can see the "vote" from the "top critics".

This may help to give some meaning the map votes.

Yeah I must admit, my ways would give yield massive numbers for one popular comment and very little for a number of mildly popular comments. Your way sounds like quite solid Tig. The time-based thing was only if you were to separate user reputation from comment voting.