Node Reputation vs. Personal Reputation

Okay, I know what all of you are thinking? Hasn't this been done? And the answer is no. Sure there have been a few posts about node reputation. There's even been a node on personal reputation. However, I am going to take a different approach with this one so please bear with me until you have read the full text of this node. Thank you.

Does it matter if my node is down voted?
No. Of course not! Receiving down votes does not mean that I am a bad programmer. And it certainly does not reduce my personal reputation nor does not make me a worse person.

I came to the realization that I do not sweat the down votes as often as I used to. I expect my humor nodes to draw negative reputations. 8^D
But I still take offense when I work hard writing a node only to have it down voted without a reply as to why. It usually does not take me long to get over it though. I do not dwell on those negative nodes. I move on and compose more code or reply to some nodes.

Does it matter if my node is up voted?
Once again, no. If one of my nodes gets a positive reputation it does not mean that I am a good programmer. And it certainly does not make me any better as a person.

Do not get me wrong though! I enjoy seeing the reputation of my nodes increase. To me, it means that my post was accepted by the Perl Monks community and appreciated.

Does my low (or negative) node reputation mean that my node is any worse than another?
No, not necessarily. It might mean:

I said the exact same thing as someone else.
I posted code or statements that was not clear.
I posted code or statements containing errors or omissions.
I posted irrelevant information.
I said something offensive.
any number of other things...

Does my high node reputation mean that my node is any better than another?
Once again, not necessarily. It might mean:

that some Monks thought that it was useful.
that some Monks thought that it was insightful.
that some Monks thought that it was funny.
that some Monks were trying to cast all of their votes.
any number of other things...

Does my node reputation matter?
This question always results in all sorts of answers. Some say yes because it means the node is worthy. Some say no because it only results in more or less useless XP. I say no and if you do not know why that I think so, then you really should promptly re-read this entire node from the beginning. ;)

Does my personal reputation matter?
Yes and no. What kind of answer is that you ask? Let me explain.

Yes, I should strive to be a better person. I should not try to hurt another Monk's feelings. I should always try to improve myself. I should always try to say and do the right things. I should try to help others. Even if I am not 100% successful, I will have improved my personal reputation in someone's eyes.

No, it should not matter what other people think of me. The thoughts of other people does not affect me directly. Sure, I might have to deal with someone's attitude if they do not like me. But remember that everyone is entitled to have an opinion of me, good or bad. If someone doesn't like me, so what? There are literally billions of people in the world that I could meet here.

What does my node reputation mean then?
Absolutely nothing! Node reputation is just an indication of what people think about my writing content, style, grammar, syntax, sense of humor, programming expertise, etc. So you could say that my node reputation is a reflection of several aspects of my personal reputation.

Node reputation is simply a means to an end. It came into being because the gods decided that Perl Monks needed a way for Monks to gain added responsiblies as they became more acquanted with Perl Monks.

Thank you for your time.

Comment on Node Reputation vs. Personal Reputation

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Node Reputation vs. Personal Reputation by sauoq (Abbot) on Nov 16, 2002 at 07:34 UTC
I wonder how you can go through several paragraphs of explaining what node reputation might mean and end by saying it means nothing. Node reputation is indicative of something even if we can't say exactly what that is. It isn't entirely arbitrary. It is a function of node visibility, popularity, and noise. The above serves as some explanation of why I downvoted your node. Its reputation now reflects, in some small part, my opinion. Not that it matters... -sauoq "My two cents aren't worth a dime.";	[reply]
Re: Re: Node Reputation vs. Personal Reputation by Mr. Muskrat (Canon) on Nov 21, 2002 at 17:38 UTC
I wonder how you can go through several paragraphs of explaining what node reputation might mean and end by saying it means nothing. Easy... I said my. My node, my node reputation, my personal reputation. You are free to interpret your own nodes' reputations differently. Node reputation is indicative of something even if we can't say exactly what that is. It isn't entirely arbitrary. It is a function of node visibility, popularity, and noise. I tried to establish that but perhaps I'm not very eloquent. The above serves as some explanation of why I downvoted your node. Its reputation now reflects, in some small part, my opinion. Not that it matters... The down vote does not matter but the explanation for the down vote does. You interpreted my words differently than what I had meant. No worries.	[reply]
Re: Node Reputation vs. Personal Reputation by TexasTess (Beadle) on Nov 16, 2002 at 02:47 UTC
The title of this node should be "Experience Points and What they mean to me" Or "Experience Points, an illustration of cunning manipulation of the human mind" Or even "Experience Points Are really NOTHING about Experience but more about Marketing and using the human EGO to satisfy a need". It is human nature to want to help, whether you're an experience programmer or someone just learning....every body likes to feel that they had enough knowledge about a subject that they were able to help someone who had less knowledge. Programming is an art form to most, and when a person has put in a degree of intellectual effort to produce a creative object they are NATURALLY quite sensitive to criticism, even if that criticism is a "down" vote. We live in a society where competition and striving to be the best is a way of life, and it is also human nature to find you're not as good as you'd like to think you are...that someone was able to find flaw with your thought process..To try to say we shouldn't feel that way is saying we shouldn't be human. Often the rebuttals are harsh and carry a superior tone that also invokves a natural resistance or bad feeling about the response, instead of learning a new way or a better way to code a topic...many will resist the response in sort of an emotional self defense. Is the point system good? Yes, I think so because even though some wield their voting power improperly, voting on silly things such as grammer or context unrelated to programming(I've been downvoted for having my tag line bolded even!), it still ultimately provides positive reinforcement in a negative way. Human nature will entice the most competitive to become better and they won't be able to resist honing their skills until they see one of their nodes on the all time best list and thus will enhance the world of perl development. (A lot like what our capitolistic system does to our society) Just my two cents, thanks for opening this discussion...It gave me an opportunity to vent my HUMAN frustration and egotistical opinion :-) TexasTess "Great Spirits Often Encounter Violent Opposition From Mediocre Minds" --Albert Einstein	[reply]
Re: Re: Node Reputation vs. Personal Reputation by Mr. Muskrat (Canon) on Nov 21, 2002 at 17:29 UTC
XP was only mentioned once and that was in reference to the thoughts of the multitudes here... I didn't want to rehash the old discussions about experience points versus true experience. You are right though, experience points are all about ego...	[reply]
Re: Node Reputation vs. Personal Reputation by tmiklas (Hermit) on Nov 16, 2002 at 20:26 UTC
Hello Monks! XP and node reputation - we have mangled those topics many times :-) but thay are still here! Well - i think that it's ok as far as someody has something new and constructive (i hope) to say :-) and this thread is IMO very constructive. IMvHO - node reputation is some kind of feedback. When it increases i feel happy, maybe some kind proud that somebody read my node and find it useful in her/his subjective way. It means that i went the right way. If node reputation decreases or is negative - well, maybe i should think about the problem again. Maybe i was wrong (subjective of course)... Negative reputation makes me sad, but still is very constructive - it's a pure critique of my work/ideas - words. Even if we don't lik it, it's still very useful - if only we know how to use it. A few words about personal XP - it's not about node reputation, any magic knowledge, etc. It's our lasting attaintment - something like respect/esteem, based (in some way) on reputation of my nodes. Sometimes it can be read as a counter, which counts how much we have learned about perl, people and their problems/ideas :-) Anyway, please remember that the CB is also a great form of feedback - one short message should be enough i we really (dis)like the specific node. Greetz, Tom.	[reply]
Re: Node Reputation vs. Personal Reputation by heezy (Monk) on Nov 19, 2002 at 15:55 UTC
Obviously as your node has now been front-paged it will recieve tens... hundreds more votes then a node that is not front-paged. Because somebody thought this was an important and particularly good node they front-paged your node to the monastry gates and you recieve many more votes. (although I think this node is quite interesting and I probably would of done the same, but still a lot of people don't care about this node, or the others at "The Gates" To many people the gates is a way of casting all their daily votes easily at once and gain a few XP points by doing so) (personally I think everynode is worthy of being on Perlmonks but users should be able to specify in a search the minimum/maximum XP points they want in the items returned by the search. Then if XP matters to you your search can take that into account, if not.. then you don't have to include it in the search) M	[reply]


P is for Practical
	PerlMonks