7.3. How Will You Use Reputation to Modify Your Site’s Output?

After deciding which reputation scores to display to whom, you’ll need to decide how to use the scores to change the way your application works. It’s easy to think that all you need to do is display a few stars here or a few points there—but if you stopped there, you wouldn’t capture the most value from reputation.

To use reputation without displaying it, focus on how to identify the outlying reputable entities (users and content) to improve the quantity and quality of interaction on your site. When you’re selecting patterns, review the goals you set for your system (see Chapter 5). If you’re primarily concerned about identifying abusive behavior, focus on filtering and decisions. If you’re going to display a lot of public reputation over many entities, focus on ranking and sorting to help users explore your content.