Upgrades: Influence & Forum Voting

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INTRODUCING INFLUENCE & FORUM VOTING

We’ve established a point system for the forums (soon to expand to our entire site), which takes into account a member’s participation. You can gain both positive and negative influence based upon what you do on the site.

The goal of this influence system is to reward those members who not only help their fellow users, but also those who help the forums to run smoothly. As you can see from the chart below, those who participate by posting will gain influence points. The real points come, however, when others deem your posts as helpful (by voting – see below), or when you help us to rid the site of junk/spam.

On the other hand, as you can see, the impact of spamming the site, not following the rules (we need to edit your posts), or worse, is severe in terms of your influence points.

Voting

Members can vote for a forum topic or reply if they find it interesting or helpful. At the top right of any post, you’ll see a vote icon. Just click the icon and you’ll give an endorsement to that post, and influence points to the poster. You can’t vote for your own posts, and members are limited to 25 votes per day.

Influence Point System:

Action: Net Gain/Loss

Vote Post Up: 1
Each reply to your post gets you: 1
Post New Topic: 5
Reply to topic: 4
Have your Post voted up: 10
You mark a post as spam; no gain unless removed by admin or mod. If removed: 20, if edited: 10

Have your post deleted: -50
Have your post edited -10
Banned from individual forum -200
Banned from all forums -1000

We're working on other ways to help motivate our members to participate, help their fellow members, and help BP in general. Stick around and we'll reveal these soon!

TrackBacks

Comments

Jim Wineinger
5 months ago

Great idea!
This would mean that we can see those newbies that obviously do not read the rules before they post. The rules state to indroduce yourself in the new members forums. This would give you 5 points for starting a topic.

A new member without those 5 points will probably be found violating some area of posting rules!
Shana Gray
5 months ago

do we get points for filling out our profile?
Joshua Dorkin
5 months ago

You will eventually. Right now the influence only covers the forums, but it will soon include every aspect of the website - profile, blogs, bulletins, articles, etc.
Wendy Timmons
5 months ago

Love this feature! BP gets better every time I visit :)
Joshua Dorkin
5 months ago

I'm happy to hear that you like the feature, Wendy. We've got a whole lot more to come . . . stick around!
Fran Fagen
4 months ago

I feel bad that my influence is negative 17 points? am I reading that correctly? I'm wondering what I did wrong to have a negative rating. I am relatively new, and am trying to follow the rules, so would appreciate feedback of how I can transfer from negative to positive!
Joshua Dorkin
4 months ago

Hey Fran - The only way you would have gotten negative influence would be by disregarding one of the rules of the site. That said, it shouldn't be too hard to turn that negative to positive. Just start participating on BiggerPockets within the rules and you'll see the number climb back. As you can see this this post, there is ample opportunity to gain positive influence from participating in the forums, and the same applies on the rest of the site. Good luck.
Fran Fagen
4 months ago

thanks Josh-- I will try to keep participating, but its really bothering me as to what I might have done against the rules?? I really enjoy this site. maybe I didn't introduce myself correctly? I will try that. any other advice would be appreciated.
thanks,
Fran
Joshua Dorkin
4 months ago

Fran - Check your private messages.