What's the deal with "rep"?

[An undercover parent]

I jumped into a round of TF2 for the first time in maybe 5 years (poor internet connections mean I usually avoid pvp games). A bunch of players jumped on me in chat for playing medic to a heavy that was apparently "a known hacker" (the heavy seemed fine to me) but they encouraged other players to "go to my profile and -rep me." I looked it up but can't find anything conclusive about steam reputation so what am I missing here? Is this a new feature or was that just hazing? Thanks for any insights.

[Three English Letters شازام]

It means nothing and it's worth nothing.
People think it makes them more trustworthy/popular or they just love to farm profile comments.

[An undercover parent]

Originally posted by Three English Letters شازام:

It means nothing and it's worth nothing.
People think it makes them more trustworthy/popular or they just love to farm profile comments. :rep1: :rep2:
:itsboshytime:

This confirms some of what I was reading — so does "rep" just boil down to people commenting "-rep" or "+rep" on your profile?

[nullable]

Originally posted by An undercover parent:

This confirms some of what I was reading — so does "rep" just boil down to people commenting "-rep" or "+rep" on your profile?

Yes. People just want a simple one metric way of determining trustworthiness. But there's no controls and no meaning to rep, so people just imagine whatever is convenient. And even if the was any value, accounts still get hijacked regardless of rep. And even if you're convinced an account is safe to deal with because it has a lot of rep, and you're wrong, who do you take it up with?

Individuals either need to learn it the hard way, or they benefit from the credulousness that "rep" causes among less informed users.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Rep means nothing. It's basically spam, but people do it because they believe trust, or whatever, but really it's means nothing, for all you know you can see someone with million +rep but really the person a scammer, that why it means nothing on people comments.

[ElvisDeadly]

Even if +rep meant something and was worth paying attention to people can delete comments on their own profile making leaving -rep utterly pointless

[Blargo]

Originally posted by Three English Letters شازام:

It means nothing and it's worth nothing.
People think it makes them more trustworthy/popular or they just love to farm profile comments. :rep1: :rep2:
:itsboshytime:

Why are there actual Steam emotes for "+rep" and "-rep"?

[An undercover parent]

Thanks everyone. The comments I saw in TF2 make much more sense now.

[Glimmer]

Originally posted by Dxpress:

Why are there actual Steam emotes for "+rep" and "-rep"?

Are you referring to these? https://steamcommunity.com/market/listings/753/628750-%3Arep2%3A
Those exist because the developer of that game wanted to make them. Doesn't change the meaninglessness of posting "+/- rep" as an ad hoc reputation system.

[Blargo]

Originally posted by Glimmer:

Originally posted by Dxpress:

Why are there actual Steam emotes for "+rep" and "-rep"?

Are you referring to these? https://steamcommunity.com/market/listings/753/628750-%3Arep2%3A
Those exist because the developer of that game wanted to make them. Doesn't change the meaninglessness of posting "+/- rep" as an ad hoc reputation system.

I know. I was questioning why the developers of that game created emotes of said ad-hoc reputation system.
That'll just make people think it's a legitimate system and fall for scams more easily if they're new to Steam or don't know any better.

[Three English Letters شازام]

Originally posted by Dxpress:

Originally posted by Glimmer:

Are you referring to these? https://steamcommunity.com/market/listings/753/628750-%3Arep2%3A
Those exist because the developer of that game wanted to make them. Doesn't change the meaninglessness of posting "+/- rep" as an ad hoc reputation system.

I know. I was questioning why the developers of that game created emotes of said ad-hoc reputation system.
That'll just make people think it's a legitimate system and fall for scams more easily if they're new to Steam or don't know any better.

Yeah. It's a little bit like this removed item.
It had a name change, but it could've been used to fool people.

[Psycho]

Idk there's absolutely no point to it.. Rep itself doesn't add to your trustworthiness, at ALL. But I just recently started asking for reps on my profile cuz it's an easy way to get comments on your profile. Makes your profile look nicer

But the people that ask for -rep are edgy kids that are trying to look cool

[Blargo]

Originally posted by Mike:

Idk there's absolutely no point to it.. Rep itself doesn't add to your trustworthiness, at ALL. But I just recently started asking for reps on my profile cuz it's an easy way to get comments on your profile. Makes your profile look nicer

I'd argue it makes your profile look like you're a scammer, if anything, since only scammers benefit from "+rep" comments.

[StickyPawz]

The completely user-invented "rep" feature means nothing ... since users can manipulate and remove/block such unwanted comments from their profiles.

[ElvisDeadly]

Originally posted by Mike:

Makes your profile look nicer

Thats subjective...

[B l u e b e r r y P o p t a r t]

It was a player made system back in the day when it was used for trading and it was a decent system back then that real legit players used. But in recent years it was taken over by scammers to look legit, reputable and trustworthy.

It is also used as a joke most the time too.

Do not go by these for any reason and if someone tries to tell you they have rep for any type of trade, block or ignore them and move on.