Great Question!

What is reputation?
Reputation is a way of rating users depending on the quality of their posts. When registering you automatically have a reputation level of 10.

Reputation may be positive , negative or neutral . Negative reputation may only be given once per post. Neutral reputation is only given when the person giving reputation does not meet this criteria:

• Minimum post count of 20 and,
  
• 10 reputation points
  

How do I give reputation?
To give reputation, click on the reputation icon () in the relevant post. This will reveal a form to complete with the reputation type and the reason for giving the reputation. If you approve, it's positive, if you disapprove it's negative. You may not give reputation for the same post twice and you can only give out 2 reputations per 24 hour period.

How do I know what reputation I have received?
You can view the reputation that you have received in your OPTIONS (User Control Panel) where it is displayed at the bottom of the User Control Panel page. Here you will see the latest reputation that you have received and whether this is positive, negative or neutral. Your total reputation will be shown as series of reputation indicators in your posts and profile. The more positive your reputation, the more positive icons will be shown. The more negative your reputation the more negative icons will be shown.

How much reputation is given? What is reputation power?
The amount of reputation that each user will give (or take away if negative) is shown in the user's posts as 'Reputation Power'. The value of the reputation power is 100 reputation points. This means for every 100 points of reputation one receives, their reputation power gains 1 point.

One point of reputation is also given to a person you Thank in the the post. You can say 'Thank You' 5 times within a 24 hour period.

In order to hit the same person twice with a reputation point, (positive or negative), 50 other users must give a reputation point to this user first.

What if I don't want anyone to see my reputation?
You can disable the display of your reputation by going to your User CP and selecting Edit Options. On this page you will find a check box labelled 'Show Your Reputation Level'. Un-checking this box will remove the display of your reputation and replace it with the Reputation Disabled icon. Permissions to hide your reputation are based on your membership level. (Coming Soon!) You can still give and receive reputation while your reputation display is disabled.

The reputation system is meant for users to use and use wisely. Too many negative reputations is not good... obviously.
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This forum is for everyone. We have a variety of people here coming from all different educational backgrounds. It is not at all limited to those with high educations or large vocabularies, everyone has a philosophy therefore, philosophyforum.com is for everyone.

Thanks for asking about this and glad to have finally cleared up what it is. Needed to be done. We'll stick this somewhere.

How do I go about creating a poll? Is there going to be a poll forum?, where polls can simply be posted without explanation or elaboration?

Quote from Philosophy Forum FAQ's:
[QUOTE]
You may notice that some threads on this forum also include a section where you can vote on an issue or question. These threads are called 'polls'.
How do I create a new poll?
When you post a new thread, you may also have the option to create a poll.
This allows you to ask a question and specify a number of possible responses. Other members will then be able to vote for the response they wish, and the results of the voting will be displayed in the thread.
An example poll might be:
What is your favorite color?
[LIST]
[*]Red
[*]Blue
[*]Yellow
[*]Green
[*]Sky-blue
[*]Pink with yellow spots
[/LIST]To create a poll when you post a new thread, simply click the 'Yes, post a poll with this thread' checkbox at the bottom of the page, and set the number of possible responses you want to include.
When you click the submit button, you will be taken to the poll creation page, where you can specify the question and the list of responses you want to include.
You may also want to specify a time limit for the poll, so that (for example) it stays open for voting for only a week.
How do I vote in a poll and view the results?
To vote in a poll, simply select which option you want to vote for, and click the 'Vote!' button. Sometime you can choose more than one option. You can see the current results for a poll before you vote by clicking the 'View Results' link. Voting in a poll is entirely optional. You may vote for any of the available options, or cast no vote at all.
Note whether or not a poll is a public poll. If it is, any votes you cast will be attributable to you.
Generally, once you have voted in a poll, you will not be able to change your vote later, so place your vote carefully!

[/QUOTE]
I hope this has been helpful.
Your servant,
The Prof.

Didn't see the poll option button, lol.

Currently, not all members can create polls. This is going to be rolled into the point system shortly. Stay tuned.

Whenever I am on the forum I have a lot of questions that I don't necessarily want a long answer to, or don't require a dozens opinions for. I was wondering what forum I should put a quick question under like " What is the difference between formal and informal logic" or something like that, that requires a quick answer.

Whenever I rate a thread is it just for show or does it make the thread last longer on the 'front page' list, like giving it an actual effect or something?

I know silly question, but gotta know.:a-ok:

It's supposed to help the busy decide which threads to read I think. I don't believe it gives long life.

Is there a setting somewhere that I am just blind to see that controls whether I get e-mailed responses to subscribed threads?

For some reason I am not getting emailed any responses anymore.