REMINDER: Rule 3.9 No soliciting of blessings or reputation points

[Erwin]

We have been very lenient when it comes to Rule 3.9 breaches:

3.9 You will not beg or solicit blessings or reputation points anywhere on the site including in posts and PMs.

We've had this rule for over 2 years or more. We've just been slack in enforcing it.

Due to complaints from a fair number of members, we have decided to enforce this rule better.

However, members seem to be confused.

The rule does NOT stop anyone from giving out blessings or reputation points to anyone or any post they like.

The rule only prevents a member from making a thread or a post asking for blessings or reputation points.

I hope this clarifies the misconceptions that are floating around.

 

[Plan 9]

So, we in Wesley's Parish were wrong to start the Order of the Candle, as are other congregational fora who have establshed similar "bank" accounts?

 

[jesusfreak4888]

im confused ....one question if we start a thread ike i have were i want people to come get blessings is that not right i dont see how i am breaking the rule if im giving them to them im the one who wants to give to them they dont just come up and beg me? im a little confused please let me know?

 

[Erwin]

You can give, you just can't ask.

The special blessings bank to get the armor is slightly different as you are not asking blessings for YOURSELF, but asking for another reason.

You can exchange blessings for services, items etc. Different things.

 

[Plan 9]

im confused ....one question if we start a thread ike i have were i want people to come get blessings is that not right i dont see how i am breaking the rule if im giving them to them im the one who wants to give to them they dont just come up and beg me? im a little confused please let me know?

I think that's really sweet of you to do that, jf!

 

[Erwin]

You can start threads to GIVE blessings, but the problem arises when members post a REPLY asking for blessings - starting your thread is fine, but members can't really post replies to ASK for them. If you know what I mean. This does not stop from giving blessings out, but members are not allowed to post and ask for blessings for nothing.

 

[Veiled Viper]

The special blessings bank to get the armor is slightly different as you are not asking blessings for YOURSELF, but asking for another reason.

Special blessings bank?

 

[Plan 9]

You can give, you just can't ask.

The special blessings bank to get the armor is slightly different as you are not asking blessings for YOURSELF, but asking for another reason.

You can exchange blessings for services, items etc. Different things.

Erwin, we were getting the candles for ourselves. There weren't enough candles available, so we solicited both candles and blessings to buy them at auction. Once you began restocking more often, we didn't need to do that any longer, but that's the only reason we stopped. We had a member account named "Candle" which everyone could bless. There are other examples, at least one of which is still a going concern.

 

[Veiled Viper]

It's really hard for people(especially youngsters)to reply to those threads without asking for the blessings.They're not so keen on the rules.

You can start threads to GIVE blessings, but the problem arises when members post a REPLY asking for blessings - starting your thread is fine, but members can't really post replies to ASK for them. If you know what I mean. This does not stop from giving blessings out, but members are not allowed to post and ask for blessings for nothing.

 

[Erwin]

The rules are not there to spoil people's fun. They are there to prevent people from posting posts everywhere asking for reps or blessings. That's all.

 

[Plan 9]

The rules are not there to spoil people's fun. They are there to prevent people from posting posts everywhere asking for reps or blessings. That's all.

Then punish everyone equally, Erwin; not just those who are the most maladroit, for whatever reason.
I once belonged to a rep club, and the point of it wsn't rep at all, but giving. It did me good to spend time there: they were fine Christian people whose motives shouldn't now be in question.

 

[Sharilyn]

Erwin, you don't have to cut the baby in half. (see King Solomon)...

Sorry, Plan 9, don't mean to be too contrary...but sometimes the line drawn isn't perfectly straight. To be fair in the highest sense of the word can be actually "unfair"...to do it straight across the board like that. It seems Erwin is being as fair as he can here, in a difficult decision. Anyway, I hope a friendly state can return to these boards very soon. I'm sorry to see all of the difficulty this controversy has caused, and I'm still trying for understanding too.

Plan 9, I do understand what you are saying..I'm just saying the decision can be tough enough, though. Let Erwin work on it a while, and tweak it until he is satisfied with it. I'm sure we will all adjust to it eventually.

 

[Plan 9]

You may not understand what I'm saying, Sherlyn, because I'm choosing my words carefully here on an a open thread.
Members have already quit over this, and that might be my wisest course, too. If CF is moving in an elitist direction, then I have to ask myself what I'm doing here, and when I do, I can't come up with a good answer.

 

[Erwin]

If members wish to quit over the fact that we do not allow people to post threads or posts solely for the solicitation of blessings and reputations, a rule which we have had for over 2 years, then I cannot stop them.

But I am not preventing the giving out of rep points nor am I closing any of the fellowship threads.

We just want to prevent the forums being clogged up with posts that have no purpose other than to ask for reputation or blessings. I think that is quite fair.

 

[Veiled Viper]

It's very fair and smart,Erwin!

If members wish to quit over the fact that we do not allow people to post threads or posts solely for the solicitation of blessings and reputations, a rule which we have had for over 2 years, then I cannot stop them.

But I am not preventing the giving out of rep points nor am I closing any of the fellowship threads.

We just want to prevent the forums being clogged up with posts that have no purpose other than to ask for reputation or blessings. I think that is quite fair.

 

[Plan 9]

The exception tests the rule. I've participated in one rep thread and two of our exceptions. I neither saw nor experienced any distinction which, when applied, would allow some to continue, while banning others.

If there's something I'm missing, then I'd be thrilled to have someone point it out to me, but, as it is, it appears that some members have carte blanc to ignore this rule, while others have the rule applied to them. That seems unfair to me, and doen't bode well for the fair application of our other rules.

 

[SumTinWong]

We just want to prevent the forums being clogged up with posts that have no purpose other than to ask for reputation or blessings. I think that is quite fair.

Have you been to the fellowship section lately? 95% of the threads there are meaningless and bandwidth hogs. There are threads just for adding post counts, what are your wearing, smelling, listening to, eating, and looking at threads. It is amazing the amount of nonsense that is enjoyed by many people in there, including myself.

The rep system itself is corrupt as it is based on opinions, not actual worthiness. I could post that my Aunt Alberta was a cross dressing donkey and someone could say, hey that was funny and rep that post. Was it worth repping? No. People rep to say hi. Others rep to say good bye.

Not every post that is repped is worth being repped and not every post that is worth being repped is repped. It is all subjective nonsense.

It is your world you created it, I am just a resident. Just thought I would express my displeasure in this regard. Thanks for your time.

 

[Starcrystal]

If members wish to quit over the fact that we do not allow people to post threads or posts solely for the solicitation of blessings and reputations, a rule which we have had for over 2 years, then I cannot stop them.

But I am not preventing the giving out of rep points nor am I closing any of the fellowship threads.

We just want to prevent the forums being clogged up with posts that have no purpose other than to ask for reputation or blessings. I think that is quite fair.

Looking at it this way it makes some sense. Rep threads were very fast moving and as a result piled up 1000 posts in no time, thus bogging down the server....

Now I DO have a question and concern. It used to be you could give 1 rep point per every 100 you had, (plus a few extra get added in for other things I forget. So if you had 1000 reps yourself you could give 10 when you repped someone. 10,000 gave you 100 to give, 100,000 gave you 1,000, and so on.
I noticed starting yesterday that when I rep someone now I only give 500 some odd points to that person, whereas before it was 5,000. Seems to me our repping power has been cut to 10% of what it was.

Is this a glitch or was something changed again??
It really doesn't matter for the amount of reps I have, but I would think such a system really affects people who have less rep points. People with few reps hardly have any repping power at all, and it makes it harder for them to gain rep power.

I'm just wondering why suddenly it seems the amount we give was cut to 10% of what it once was, and this happened in the past couple days. Didn't see anything in announcements about this....

 

[caitlincares]

It has changed.
The FAQ has been updated to show this: http://www.christianforums.com/faq.php?faq=vb_user_maintain#faq_reputation
Here is the thread that Erwin told us about it: Re-Repping somone not working

 

[Rochir]

I noticed starting yesterday that when I rep someone now I only give 500 some odd points to that person, whereas before it was 5,000. Seems to me our repping power has been cut to 10% of what it was.

Is this a glitch or was something changed again??

Erwin changed the power with which one can rep. Aye, I now am only able to give people 250 or so reps whereas before, it was much more. Well.... that doesn't bother me as much as the 100 people limit which erwin had installed before (and thankfully changed back to a sensible 20).