A new 'bot has begun operation on FIBS, called RepBot.
It provides users' of FIBS an interface to report droppers,
and for players to inquire about another players reputation
before joining in a match.
Players may also vouch for each other, rendering their
friends' reputation resistent to abuse. The numeric
reputation metric is based on experience points.
If you are logged into FIBS, you may issue the following
commands:
> tell repbot ask someuser
Returns the reputation metric for someuser if
they have any complainers or vouchers.
> tell repbot complain someuser
Registers a complaint against someuser, degrading
their reputation metric.
> tell repbot vouch someuser
Registers a vouch for that user, improving their
reputation metric.
> tell repbot help
Gives a synopsis of all commands.
More information is available at http://beam.to/repbot/
If enough people participate, dropping will be greatly
reduced. Try it out and see what you think. There is room
for improvement, so feel free to offer suggestions. Perhaps
a discussion here might lead to some further refinements.
I know it's not a complete or perfect solution, but it's
a start.
I really like the idea that, when one gets dropped, you
can simply issue the complaint and move on to the next
match. That person will not drop very many times before
noone will play with them because their reputation is
bad. In fact, one complaint in the absence of any vouches
is enough to make it so, encouraging them to finish the
previous match and change their habits, or leave.
Dana
