Notice how I now have -1.3 Trust Points. I used to have -0.3 Trust Points (because Vizzed can do math). I thought I've done nothing (almost nothing, if you count that one time when I had to leave the chat to cool down, but nothing extremely bad happened) wrong since I was allowed back, but apparently I haven't. I've done something wrong that cause a Trust Point to get taken away from me. I would like to know what I did to deserve this so I can improve upon it. Am I really that bad of a person?

LunarDarkness2 : You might want to rethink your phrasing of the question and take out the disclaimers. I know your question is what the cause of the deduction is so you know what area to work on, but the phrasing almost gives off the attitude that you view you didn't do anything wrong and deserved the point. Not saying one way or the other, but for your own sake, you may want to restate with clarity....

Man this means nothing about your conduct or how good of a person you are. Sometimes you lose TP because you did something that was seen as inappropriate by someone, and sometimes it happens because someone disagreed with something you said. So while self evaluation never hurts, don't worry about it beyond that.

m0ssb3rg935 :

I'm sorry if that was the attitude that I gave off. I was not intending to sound rude.

LunarDarkness2 : No apologies necessary, just making sure nothing gets misinterpreted. I mean, it would really suck if you got a TP taken for no reason, and then as a result of a misunderstanding, you lose yet another TP lol. These things tend to snowball, so I'm just looking out for you.

My question for you, is why do you care so much? And why does TP matter in the first place?

For example, I only have 23.8 TP (I used to have a number that ranked third on the site), even though I feel like I've been enough of a good influence to be deserving of more than that.

But it doesn't bother me, because they are internet popularity points that only exist to allow you into a not-so-secret club where nothing of any value actually happens. Other than the Viz payout (really with the inflation the way it is, I don't even count that either), what is there, that you can't access as a trusted member?

Honestly, at the heart of the matter, you probably said something and someone petty decided to take a TP for no good reason. I forget if non-trusted members can give out TP of their own, but if they can, it's also possible you uprated someone who got downrated recently, it's how I'm at only 23.8, and not a round even number.

I wouldn't worry too much about it, I've talked with you in the past, and you don't suck, so don't take the TP thing too personally.

legacyme3 :  You hit it.

Trust points are really Popularity Points with the folks who are on the 'inside' of the community.  Like every other social group, not all relationships are equal on Vizzed.

And the most interesting thing is even though a majority of members on Vizzed talk about bullying and not being accepted socially in the 'real world,' it happens just as often here.  I see it all the time between lines on posts.  I'm sure if I waltzed into the chat room, the same thing would happen.  People would be rejecting each other through words, just like how the popular kids reject the so-called nerds at school.


Ultimately, it's a score you can't control, Lunar.  You can if you want to start agreeing with people, telling them how cool they are, how much you like their posts, how right they are about Pokemon, and all that.  You would turn into a politician if TP became something important to you.

Stand your ground, participate but be your own man.  I haven't been around long and I have zero TP, last time I checked.  I hate to say it but I think people with little or no TP have much better posts than those that have a ton.

The same goes for Contribution Points.  I was following a thread where a person was talking about their massive volume of CP.  And they were earning more CP by talking about it and responding about how cool it was.  I thought, "There is absolutely no value to this thread."  But they were rolling up points.

I bet I could take a month and get a dozen TP.  And I could take a month and get several thousand CP.  But, who cares?  The threads that get those objectives achieved are the least interesting conversations on the website.

TP aren't that important. Giving them or taking them away is a personal and, to some degree, egotistical decision. The system is easily abused, as many people downrate other users just because they disagree with something they've said.

Don't think about it too much. After all, is this one person who doesn't like you, and nobody here is free of enemies. I've even seen staff members get heavily downrated, and while I would like to know the real reason behind it, everything points in the direction of different opinions or views, specially in the Debate forum.

Also, as leggy said, you don't miss that much for not being a Trusted member. I once also thought of how awesome would it be to be Trusted, but when I was upgraded to staff and saw what Trusted members are up to I deemed it useless. You don't need a high amount of TP to be respected around the site, you just need to be a good member.

There's also the rule that if you rate up someone and a staff member rates that person down, then you lose trust points.  I feel that this rule tends to punish people that may be doing their best to contribute.  A user that has dipped low may not recover easily because users are afraid of losing trust points.  I feel that this rule needs changed.

supernerd117 :

Yeah, I agree.

I don't care much about TP, so I rate up people who deserve it.

But I also have stricter guidelines on what I call a trusted member.

So I don't rate people up all too often.

LunarDarkness2 : To be honest, you aren't really going to get the type of response here that you were probably hoping for. Since this process is anonymous, I kinda doubt anyone will step forward.

I wouldn't worry about it too much though. The whole thing is subjective to each person. So I would assume that they took a point away from you because you said something in the forums they didn't agree with, or did something else that made them feel like they should take a point away.

Try not to let it bother you, having "Trusted Status" really doesn't mean a whole lot on the site. It's just a popularity contest that doesn't really provide much benefits on the site other than to be called a "Trusted Member"