We had a lot of trouble with the points system and withdrew it form use. We are now going to restart it as a system where only Moderators can rate posts and they can give only positive points( 1-4) .
We were running into a lot of trouble with users going through other user's posts and "negapointing" them. We also had the same users create multiple IDs and give themselves multiple points.
SUGGESTIONS
1. Create a switch between the current system (-2 to +2 points) and postive only points (1 to 4).
2.
This is what I really want: A new user class that is trusted to give points to other users ie "Point givers" or "Trusted users" who only have the ability to add points to posts. this also gives users the feeling they are part of the forum without being full Moderators.
3. A daily point limit for trusted users, say 20 points/day.
4. No multiple points for a single post ie one vote for one post only.
5. A quick way to find stop users posting with multiple IDs from the same IP address. I think the easiest way to do this is to give a short (say 3 minute) ban to any user logging in with a different username and the same IP address within a certain time period. The short ban would make it extremely inconvenient to keep logging in. If that is not possible then simply send an alert to admin and the issue can be dealt with manually.
I appreciate any comments from other forum owners.