How Are Users Rated?

The user rating system is designed to give a value to the contribution each user has made. The rating is calculated and displayed as a coloured bar. You'll find your rating on your profile page and also below your name in your forum posts.

Don't worry if your rating is low, there are ways to improve it and it automatically increases over time. As a new user it's not possible to get 100% but as you become more established your rating will rise. Just because your rating is low doesn't mean we don't like you! It's simply a way for us to see which users are most active on the site.

How We Figure it Out

It's pretty simple. We give you points for doing certain things and we take points away for doing less favourable things. We then multiply that by a number that represents how long you've been a member.
Positive Actions
+For each topic you start you get 2 points, and an extra 0.25 points for each photo you upload. This means you can get a maximum of 2.75 for one topic.
+For each reply you post to a topic you get 0.5 (except when reply to your own topic).
+For each article you get published you get 4 points.
+For each review or article comment you make you get 1.25 points.
+If your Hair Help question gets answered you get 1.25 points.
Negative Actions
-Lose 1 point for each bad word. Examples of these include "cuz, plz, thx, noob, liek", and others, but does not include swear words - we're trying to cut out the use of leet.
-Lose points for over-use of capitalisation. If you write like "tHis" or "TYPE A LOT IN CAPS" you'll lose points. We've checked it carefully and this only applies to excessive use of capital letters, so write normally and this won't apply.
-Lose 2 points for every comment you make that is removed. If others find your comments abusive then you'll lose out on points.

The Calculation

This is the simple part. We take any negative points off your positive points score. We divide that by the positive to get a measure of your positiveness. We then multiply this by a figure based on how long you've been a member et viola - you have a rating.

I glossed over the bit about how long you've been a member. It's a figure based on the number of weeks since you joined. It's capped at 2 years.

This is all recalculated once a week so won't see your rating rise straight away.

How Can I Improve My Rating?

If your rating is low don't worry! It's just a measure of how active you've been on the site so it will improve over time. There are a few things you can do to that will improve it, but don't forget - it's only updated once a week so you may have to wait up to 7 days to see any change.
* Start topics, share photos, help others
Your forum activity will have a large impact on your rating. The more active and helpful you are the better your rating will be. We give extra points for uploading your photos and starting new topics, whether they're questions, chat topics or photos in the show-off forum!
* Tell us what you think
Got something to say about an article? Post your comments to receive more points.
* Review a product
Have you tried any of the products in the Reviews section? If so tell us your opinion.
* Add an article
Have you done something cool with someone's hair recently or have you got a styling technique to share? Whatever it is, get points when you add an article.
* Write normally!
Writing in leet or deliberately misspelling words will remove points, as will typing too many caps.
* Stick around!
We want you to keep coming to haircrazy.info! Your rating rises with each week you stay around.

Finally

The rating system is currently being tested and may be modified to get more accurate results.
Should you want more info, please ask on the forum.