Has anyone suggested adding a very small simple reputation system for the chat rooms? I have seen some really helpful people in the chat rooms, and it would be nice to be able to give them reputation for the parent site through the chat rooms.
I can see advantages and disadvantages to this, it obviously would have to be thought out well. But I feel it would be a nice feature to have, given that I have already seen the chat rooms used as somewhat of a support room for languages.
Any thoughts?
Edit
Advantages
- Rewarding those who seem to be "support help" for the appropriate chat rooms. It is very nice that currently there are people out there willing to help as much as they are. I think this is primarily because it is new, I can see once it loses it's freshness people not being as helpful (Rep system might help with this). Which might not be a big deal, it is after all just suppose to be chat.
- Would draw more attention to the chat rooms. Gives more incentive to join and be part of the community.
Disadvantages
- Might take away from the Parent Site. People might start going to chat rooms for help instead of posting on the record questions. There would need to be some way to make it where chat room questions would need to be much more simple.
- People might abuse the system. I have not thought about it enough to think of a way that the system couldn't be abused. But if it were implemented, it would need to be implemented in a way that it could not be abused.
Even my own advantages/disadvantages sheet shows that it is probably not worth it. I just thought it might be possible to be done in a neat and fun way. And if it was achieved in an appropriate way that can't be abused, and added to the site, it would at that point only add to both the parent, and child site. Seems like it wouldn't be such a bad thing. Even though it is likely that it can't be done, it might not be a bad idea to try to imagine a way that it could work.
What prompted me to ask this
I watched a very nice gentleman over the last two days help another gentleman above and beyond. And I was sitting there wishing I could reward him in some manner, and I couldn't. He honestly wouldn't care if he was rewarded or not, but I am sure I, and the gentleman he helped, would have liked to show appreciation in some manner.