So you know how when you click "This Helped Me" at the bottom of a message how it's supposed to add 5 points to the writer's reputation. Well, I just noticed that it doesn't seem to be working correctly—if at all. Has anyone else noticed anything funny?
Echo that.
Maybe it banks until you get 5 likes - dunno. Typical muddy UI for JIVE Software, I think.
Why don't we try to verify that? I just liked your earlier post. But you still have 720 points, even after I reloaded the page.
I'll see if I can find several of your posts and like as many as I can to see if that bumps your count...give me a bit.
Your count now: 305
Update: Liked five comments of yours just now and see no count change.
I searched you and liked the first four I found:
https://forums.developer.apple.com/message/21313
https://forums.developer.apple.com/message/38794
https://forums.developer.apple.com/message/13120
https://forums.developer.apple.com/message/18064
So including the two likes on this thread, you've got six likes. And it looks like you're still at 720. Maybe the "like" system broke completely?
I'll go with broke.
Just like the old rep system where your points would go down, temporarily, for who knows why (I think it had something to do with making a comment in a 'solved' thread...), then catch up the next time someone flagged one of your comments as helpful - then there was the issue where points would reset to zero every time you hit 503.
I don't care either way about points, but if there's going to be a system, it would be nice to have one that was clear in how it worked, at least. Seems like something was dumped on Apple and they're as clueless about it's workings as we are.
Oh well. At least it's not just one of us. 🙂
But then how did I get to an odd 5 points? It must have been working sometime in the past…
It will go back and forth later, just keep on eye on it.
How about if I ask a new question and you reply and I mark that as solved - let's see if that raises your count 5 or 10 pts..
Hi Bob - try the Actions menu and "Mark as Helpful" instead - I'm currently on 4985
I've also incremented the "This helped me" count by 1 - maybe it has to get to 3 or 5 or something in one thread.
Aha! Thanks 🙂
Apparently "Mark as Helpful" does not do the same thing as "This helped me." When I tried using "Mark as Helpful" I got a green pop-up in my Safari window; after reloading the page your points were incremented by 5. So judging by what I've tried, anyone can like a post ("This helped me"), but only the originator of the discussion can "Mark as Helpful" and award points. And you can mark your own posts as helpful in your threads, but in similar manner as the "Correct Answer," one cannot bump up his own point counts.
What the forums really need is better documentation about the reputation system, don't you think?
Well I've gone up by 15 points now, but I've been replying to quite a few threads so it's hard to establish the causality exactly.
I've found that "Mark as Helpful" has the effect of that post being promoted to the output of searches with similar keyowrds, with a star next to it.
And yes, some documentation would be great! Someone clearly put some thought into how best to promote helpful answers so that they don't have to be repeated over and over, but forgot to tell anyone how it actually works 😁
I gave you 5 by marking your first response as helpful; I think the other 10 came from answering someone's question.
And wouldn't it be nice if the point counts updated immediately or even animated so you know they changed? Right now you have to reload the page in order for it to update.
The points seem pointless ... 😝 - bad pun aside, all they serve to do is raise levels, which are themselves pointless from what I can tell (although 5000 is pleasing in a round-number-y sort of way, it's otherwise meaningless - as is Level 8).
Some documentation that is easily accessible from the landing page to new forum users (I'd guesstimate that almost 50% of threads are started by first-time users) to explain how to do a proper search so they can benefit from the promoted answers system - and that also explains how to promote answers themselves if their question / issue is resolved - would be really help the forum run more efficiently.
I've taken to pointing out how to do this on a semi-routine basis in threads that I've helped troubleshoot - I even started doing it in other threads that I'd had no prior involvement in if the OP had expressed that their issue was resolved, but had not marked the thread as answered.
I still don't know if clicking the "This helped me" link has the same effect if enough people click it or if it just does nothing - if it does nothing then it's worse than useless, because it deflects the OP from promoting helpful posts in the way that actually makes a difference...
