The 'friends' command in RepBot restricts the calculation of reputation to factor in only the opinions of those you have vouched for. The assumption is made, for the sake of simplicity, that the users on your vouch list are both players you recommend to others and players whose opinions you value.
This solves a few problems with the original design of RepBot:
1) "The Biggles factor": Biggles obtained the highest reputation by a huge margin. The how and why of it I will not address, but assuming that it was abusive in nature (you define abuse and make your own conclusions), the motivation to do this would be vastly diminished if ONLY the friends function existed.
2) "The maria factor": maria feels strongly against RepBot (she has said this many times publically). Her form of protest is to vouch for as many of the well-known droppers as possible in an attempt to counter the complaints. If ONLY the friends command existed, her motivation to do this would be removed, as opinions only go as far as your friends. She would also be cutting herself out of many other peoples' vouch lists, as they strive to attain better recommendations, at least until she reversed her tactics.
3) "the 10K club factor": gangs of fibsters apparently enjoy choosing a victim and complaining about them en masse, thereby ruining their public reputation. If ONLY the friends option existed, their motivation would be vastly reduced, as the effect of their opinions would only travel as far as the lists of people who have vouched for them. Furthermore, others who become aware of the tactics, in an attempt to obtain better reputation results, would be motivated to remove these abusers from their own lists, reducing the effect further.
The last time the friends option was discussed, people were hesitant about it, stating that it could only work given enough data to work with. Usage since then has continued to climb, and we may be at a level where the general purpose 'ask' command could be taken away in favor of 'friends' functionality and repbot would continue to be useful.
More importantly, Patti has threatened to remove RepBot by the end of March unless abuse issues are solved. Now may be the only chance to keep RepBot going. In addition to this, RepBot is currently a hot topic, because of Pattis' proclamation, so it may be best to "strike while the iron is hot". Clients and users should feel minimal impact to this simple re-routing.
Several improvements to the basic 'friends' function can be discussed in the future by those with the interest in doing so:
-separate list for 'trusted opinions' from vouches.
-second order calculations and beyond, i.e. if avik is on my vouch list, also factor in those on his vouch list. the idea is, if i trust avik, then by extension, i trust those he trusts-
-custom 'levels' and 'weights', i.e. factor in the opinions of those on my vouch list at a weight of 1.0, and those on aviks' list at 0.4, and because alef is on aviks' vouch list, those on alefs' vouch list at a weight of 0.05. The user decides the number of levels and weights for themself.
-matchmaker: you request a match recommendation from repbot, which then searches the current list of ready players for the closest matches, even if they are beyond your 'level' definitions. Something along these lines might prevent the vouch lists from becoming too stagnant. Some means of motivating people to add to their vouch list might be required to keep the system going.
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The 'friends' command in RepBot restricts the calculation of reputation to factor in only the opinions of those you have vouched for. The assumption is made, for the sake of simplicity, that the users on your vouch list are both players you recommend to others and players whose opinions you value.
This solves a few problems with the original design of RepBot:
1) "The Biggles factor": Biggles obtained the highest reputation by a huge margin. The how and why of it I will not address, but assuming that it was abusive in nature (you define abuse and make your own conclusions), the motivation to do this would be vastly diminished if ONLY the friends function existed.
2) "The maria factor": maria feels strongly against RepBot (she has said this many times publically). Her form of protest is to vouch for as many of the well-known droppers as possible in an attempt to counter the complaints. If ONLY the friends command existed, her motivation to do this would be removed, as opinions only go as far as your friends. She would also be cutting herself out of many other peoples' vouch lists, as they strive to attain better recommendations, at least until she reversed her tactics.
3) "the 10K club factor": gangs of fibsters apparently enjoy choosing a victim and complaining about them en masse, thereby ruining their public reputation. If ONLY the friends option existed, their motivation would be vastly reduced, as the effect of their opinions would only travel as far as the lists of people who have vouched for them. Furthermore, others who become aware of the tactics, in an attempt to obtain better reputation results, would be motivated to remove these abusers from their own lists, reducing the effect further.
The last time the friends option was discussed, people were hesitant about it, stating that it could only work given enough data to work with. Usage since then has continued to climb, and we may be at a level where the general purpose 'ask' command could be taken away in favor of 'friends' functionality and repbot would continue to be useful.
More importantly, Patti has threatened to remove RepBot by the end of March unless abuse issues are solved. Now may be the only chance to keep RepBot going. In addition to this, RepBot is currently a hot topic, because of Pattis' proclamation, so it may be best to "strike while the iron is hot". Clients and users should feel minimal impact to this simple re-routing.
Several improvements to the basic 'friends' function can be discussed in the future by those with the interest in doing so:
-separate list for 'trusted opinions' from vouches.
-second order calculations and beyond, i.e. if avik is on my vouch list, also factor in those on his vouch list. the idea is, if i trust avik, then by extension, i trust those he trusts-
-custom 'levels' and 'weights', i.e. factor in the opinions of those on my vouch list at a weight of 1.0, and those on aviks' list at 0.4, and because alef is on aviks' vouch list, those on alefs' vouch list at a weight of 0.05. The user decides the number of levels and weights for themself.
-matchmaker: you request a match recommendation from repbot, which then searches the current list of ready players for the closest matches, even if they are beyond your 'level' definitions. Something along these lines might prevent the vouch lists from becoming too stagnant. Some means of motivating people to add to their vouch list might be required to keep the system going.