Reputation vs Reputation Altering Power

[dendrob]

I just started playing with this on my forum and I find the reputation system very confusing. At its core I feel it would be useful, but the 'reputation-altering power' seems pretty useless concept.

I've searched far and wide and every post I see the people seem even more confused then I am - even the ones explaining it

What's the purpose of the reputation-altering-power??? What is someone has Rep Power of 5 and someone rep power of 5000. If both add to my reputation, what's the end effect? Do I get more rep from the member with rep power of 5000???

Once they add to someone's rep, does their rep-altering-power go down???

I'd like to completely forget about this rep altering power business (as it confuses the hell out of everyone on my board) and just allow everyone with say 50+ posts add to other members reputation if they find the post useful.

[Wayne Luke]

Reputation equals the number of points you have.

Reputation altering power equals how you affect another person's reputation. Those with higher power add or subtract more points than those with lower power. Giving points does not affect your power. Gaining or losing reputation along with your usergroup affects it.

You can set all the variables that affect rep power to 0 or 1 in the options to make it equal across the board.

[Nyenius]

I think some real-life case study should be included in the VB manual... it'll make all clear