What are the little green rectangles under our names next to our posts? I know its probably a really dumb question but i was curious. TIA
Reputation. The little scales icon next to the online/offline indicator by a users' posts is the option to give a person positive or negative reputation points for that post. It doesn't mean anything, really, it's just a vBulletin feature.
Hover the cursor over the icon to get a curious, fortune-cookie type description of a user's reputation. As Banzai says however, it is mostly nonsense. If members appreciate your contribution to the site the bar should rise, indicating their approval via the balance icon.
Also, in case you're interested, the number of points you can give/subtract is determined by your post count and your own reputation. There is a threshold number of posts (the exact number I'm not sure of, though it may be 50 posts, as that is the threshold for ordinary member) which a user has to be above in order to give/subtract a point. Beyond that, a member can give/subtract an additional one point for every five hundred posts, and an additional one point for every hundred reputation points. I've you've been given any reputation, it shows up on the UserCP screen, with a comment (if the user giving you the reputation left a comment).
So that is what the reputation button is for. Does the 10 points mean i have recieved or can give 10? Sorry forum stuff somehow baffles me. Gid knows why, i have made a few websites so it shouldnt be that hard.
Yes, everyone starts off with +10. We generally discourage giving negative rep (it's usually done as a matter of petty spite). Disapproval should generally be handled by reporting an offensive or inappropriate post via the report post icon .
Not a stupid question at all -- I didn't know either. I thought it was such a good question, I bumped your rep. May be you'll get another little green rectangle soon.
And now I finally got confirmed my theory that post count and rep of the giver affected how many points you got. "The more you know."
