Why do you use Helpful Answers instead of the Reputation System?

I wonder why so many sites prefer the Helpful Answers modificiation from vbulletin.org to the Reputation system?

 

Because the reputation system is so discreet and hardly anybody uses it. The Helpful Answers system is much more prominent, meaning more people are likely to use it. In my observations, the Helpful Answers system is used much more than the reputation system alone.

The Helpful Answers system ties in with the vBulletin reputation system, which is great, too.

 

If the

• small reputation icon would be designed to have its place where the "Did you find this post helpful" line is, and
• the icon would be replaced with a "Did you find this post helpful" link,

where are the advantages of the org modification over the reputation system?

 

• The modification displays a "x out of y people found this post helpful" message below each post that has been rated.
• Each user's stats are displayed in their profile ("this user's posts have been rated helpful x out of y times")
• You can customize the amount of points that are awarded for each helpful marking (either percentage-based off power or a set number).
• The ability to ban specific members from using the system.
• The ability to show a page with the top helpful posts.

 

More visible. The reputation system needs work. It's a great tool, but not utilized I think to what it could be. Helpful Answers does more, also post thanks does too. If the reputation system would do what both of them do. I'd think I'd died and gone to sin.

 

I use the Thanks Mod coupled with Reputation.

You get one reputation point when someone Thanks your post. Or, the user can user Reputation instead of the Thanks mod.

 

This would be fantastic! Implementing them both.

If someone joins and makes a post, I try to leave a "welcome to the forum!" message if a reputation system is in place.

Someone joined a few days ago, I quoted them, and said 'welcome!', and the predictable reply was 'do I know you?'

 

I would actually much rather use a "Thanks" system on my forum rather than a reputation system for the following reasons:

1) Thanks are visible to everyone, so you stand by your thanks rather than anonymous reputation.

2) Thanks are focused on the positive - while reputation is positive and negative, and I see lots of big forums that have rep abuse. Thanks are a lot less tied to the actual poster as they are to the post itself.

3) The reputation scale is different in every forum (thus it's inconsistent), and a Thanks is the same everywhere.