For the past few years, the forum has desperately been in need of a new Trust Point System, one that can't be as easily abused and one that the staff has more control over. I have finally recreated the Trust Point System from the ground up using ideas that I've come up with and that others have come up with over the past few years.

For those who don't know, the Trust Point system is a system that measures a user's loyalty to vizzed and their trustworthiness among the forum users. When a user gets enough Trust Points, they become a 'Trusted Member' which gives them a few extra privileges and sets them apart from everyone else.

Trust Points are meant to be earned by posting quality posts and by earning respect from fellow users and staff. Trust Points are NOT meant to be purchased or asked for and anyone asking for them is at risk of losing all their current points and possibly even banned.


Here's how the new system will work:


How many points can you give at a time?
5-9 Points = 1 Point
10-24 Points = 2 Points
25-49 Points = 3 Points
50-99 Points = 4 Points
100+ = 5 Points


How many points can you take away?
This will depend on your powerlevel
Site Staff = -1 Point
Local Mod = -2 Points
Global Mod = -3 Points
Admin = -4 Points
Owner = -5 Points

If a staff member cannot give a certain number of points, they cannot take away that same number. For example, if Local Moderator can only give a max of 1 point to a single user, than the most they can take away is 1 point but if that Local Mod can give 3 points, THAN they can take away their limit of 2 points.


How do you earn a Trusted Member position?
If you get at least 5 Trust Points


If you have a Trusted Member position, how do you lose it?
If your Trust Points go below 0, you'll lose your trust position.


How do you give someone Trust Points?
By going to their profile and clicking the 'Rate User' link.


How many times can you rate someone?
The following shows the total amount of points you can give out per week
5-10 Points = 2 Point
10-24 Points = 4 Points
25-49 Points = 6 Points
50-99 Points = 8 Points
100+ = 10 Points

Negative points become positive in this scale. So for example, a -2 rating counts as 2 points.

The amount of Trust Points you can give per a week resets at the beginning of each week (no rollovers).

If you re-rate someone, the new rating is not relative to the old rating in regards to how many points you can give out. So for example, if you rate someone a 3 and than later rate them a 4, the first time you use up 3 of your weekly points and the 2nd time you use up 4 of your weekly points (a total of 7 points used). Likewise, if you rate someone 4 points and later rate them 3 points, same thing.


You can lose points for positively rating someone who loses points
You must be very careful of who you rate positively because if you rate someone positively and the staff rate that some person negatively anytime afterward, you also lose points.

Here's the formula:
Your rating / 10 * the staff's negative rating

Here's 2 examples:
1. If you rate someone a 3 and a staff later rates that person a -1, you lose 0.3 points
2. If you rate someone a 2 and a staff later rates that person a -3, you lose 0.6 points

This will make users think twice about who they rate before they rate them. This will also greatly reduce trust point abuse.


Notifications
When you receive positive Trust Points, you'll receive a notification that you received Trust Points. However, it will no longer tell you who sent them.



Since the trust points of all former Trusted users have been reset to 10, I'm going to make it so that you can hand out double the max points you can normally hand out in a single week until January 28th.

If you have any questions, please ask in this thread.

Why can't we know who gives the points to us?

Davideo7 : I really like the new system, and I wanted to say thanks for doing this.

I also wanted to let you know that your link to this thread wasn't completed. You forgot the '[' on the last closing tab.

servbot128 : Because we don't want users to give trust points back. Just because someone gives you trust points, doesn't mean they deserve to get them back and that happens a lot.

mrfe : Fixed.

Davideo7 : are we allowed to tell them that we gave the points or is that a new rule.

I like the method also but why do the trust points have to be reset especially for the users that had 5 tp already

Davideo7 : Wait, Wait, Wait. So ONLY Site Staff can take trust points?

servbot128 : You can but if you're telling them just so they rate you back, you could be put at risk of losing your TP.

austipokedude : If you think 5 TP took a long time to earn, some users had 100+. It's a whole new system that's why everything was reset.

GameBoy1023 : Staff, which also includes Moderators.

Davideo7 : So I HAVE to be staff to Take them?

GameBoy1023 : Yes.

So how can we give trust points now?

servbot128 : I believe that, currently, only mods (I'm not totally sure about this...) can give or take TP's.

servbot128 : you have to be a trusted member to give trust points.

I'm in favor of this new system. Definitely seems like a fair way to administrate trust points without just handing them out to friends for free, and those who do so can be put at risk for losing trust points themselves. Sort of like vouching for a person, but that person breaks your trust, and since you vouched for him, it goes against your reputation.

Davideo7 : Thank you so much for the hard work you put into this. I know I really appreciate the changes and the thought you put into it.

austipokedude : Don't feel so bad. We are all in the same boat. Just think how a person that had 100+ Feels ;-)


To everyone else: If you want the TP system to work, you have to stop treating it like some popularity contest, or like it's a "trade of goods" the only way this system will work 100% is if you buy into the notion that trust points should be given to people for doing great things on the site. Writing awesome reviews, posting great threads, helping out others, etc.

 Davideo7: First of all, congratulations on the new system. Second of all, will we receive our trust points back?

ender44 : Members who were already trusted get 10 points to start out with, everyone starts out at 0. The reason that trusted members start out at 10 points is so they keep their trusted position.

Jordanv78 : Thanks, I'm really curious to see how it goes. I've been looking forward to having this taken care of for a very long time lol.

I think this is a wonderful thing.

As someone who accidentally rode the old trusted system to trusted without maybe earning it (and having been vocal about the fact that I know it!) I know I will feel much better in the future about any trust points I am given, because I will feel like I actually earned them.