How important is your reputation?

Shu

Spiral out, Keep going..
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Shu
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Let me start off by saying that this is not about the reputation that you have on the thing below your username. This is about reputation among your piers.

Do you like to maintain a good reputation? Or have you hit the Apathy button at this point in life?

There are sometimes in life you have to choose whether to maintain a good reputation among piers or take a risk and because it might lowering your reputation among friends/family. A lot of life to me is about brief instances, where if you don't take a shot, well you will never know. Because of these little instances I think people perceive you as either rash doing them, or dependable for staying set in your ways.

There always comes a time where there is a fork in the road, where you have to actually use your instincts instead of rationalizing, and because of it people will get a bad picture of you. For instance, someone basically takes the piss out of someone for pure lolpoints, and instead of keeping a good reputation about it and staying silent, you retaliate non passively. While your reputation and character perceived by this particular group of friends/coworkers might have been slandered, you now at least stand for something to you.

Also do you take the risk of hanging out with certain questionable people? I hang out around a group of heavily tatoo'd folks in Tupelo, but in Oxford if people saw me hanging around these people, they would automatically think I'm weird/druggy/etc.. whatever stereotype people hold against tatoo'd people.

Sometimes a reputation is worth it granted. My wife is highly opinionated, I'm a bit more passive aggressive when it comes to things. If I see someone doing something I think is ethically wrong on a continuous basis, I'll see to it in my head to strike when the time is right. (paper trail if need be). Anyways.. but for work, I try to stay on good terms with anyone in case folks try to pin something on me, which I've seen happen to other folks. Not that I ever questionably do wrong, but I hang out with people who do. So I'm guilty by association..

So what about you? Do like to maintain a good reputation or is this life to short to worry about that? (chivalry is dead etc..)
 
I really don't care about my rep,at the end of the day its just a little number that sits below your username.

However its is a good way to get feedback on your posts and it could kinda say how popular or hated you are among people. But I don't think people just should neg-rep you for your opinion on things which I have been neg-repped in the past. Here are a few laughable things I got neg-repped for: Saying Sin is stronger than Sephiroth, Saying I don't give a fuck if you hate me for liking FFXIII,and too being too aggresive in my posts (not threatning).

At the end of the day I don't judge people by their reputation status.........I judge them by the way they socialize with me.
 
Well right now, my rep is important because it could determine whether or not I get hired for a job. If my clinicals, who my possible employers can contact before hiring, say that I have a reputation for being late, lazy, undependable, loud, obnoxious, ect, it could very much affect my chances of getting the job I want. But if my clinical advisor says that I'm punctual, hard working, very dependable, that would increase my chance of being hired. And when I do get a job, I want to retain a good reputation with my employers and co workers. Also, I will untag myself in certain pictures on facebook that could hurt my chances of getting hired. (No drunk or slutty looking pictures.)

Among my peers, it's fairily important. I don't want people to have a wrong, or negative opinion of me.
 
I find that in my life, there are 3 different categories of reputation: Reputation at home, reputation in the workplace/school, and reputation among your friends/socially. I try to exploit this fact to make things easier for myself when I'm in those environments, but there's this small thing called the "Halo Effect", where once you've done something that will effect your reputation in a negative way, people will forget your positive traits and it'll tarnish your reputation in the long-term. These negative occurences happen unexpectedly, of course, so to keep myself from being affected by these kinds of things, I just shrug it off and carry on with how I always handle things; business as usual.

Reputation at home: This is probably the reputation I'm the least concerned about, main reason being because I keep a certain distance from my family members, but to prove that I stay in line I've built the reputation that I always listen to my elders, i only speak when spoken to, and I always do as I'm told without talking back. This makes me look like a total tool, but I'm seen as responsible enough to handle things on my own, so I don't have to deal with the hassle of having my parents looking over my shoulder at everything I do in the house. Now, when I go out, for example, that's a different story...

Reputation at the workplace/school: This is the most important thing to me, since the better I work, the better I get paid, and the better I get paid, the better I feel. As a sort of "bartender's apprentice" at a reception hall, I talk to a lot of customers and I'm the middle man between my Bartender and the rest of the staff. Every thing I say and do is reflected on how I approach people, how I handle materials, and the overall vibe I give off at work. This is all pretty stressful for me, but I have a poilicy of "service with a smile at ALL TIMES", and I have the reputation of being a pretty easy person to talk to thanks to this, so people always come to me relaxed, and this helps things work more efficiently at work (and man, do I love my job). All of this applies at school too, since my teachers trust me enough to do work assignments on my own (people come to me for help on vertain things too, though, and I'll admit, that has it's perks).



Reputation among your friends: This is somewhere in the middle of the "Importance Scale". I'm the type of person who migrates between several groups of friends in a day, so I don't get too close to people, but I'm still considered to be a good friend. Because I have a pretty good reputation among my friends I get to keep a balance between socializing and my personal space (which I value).

In conclusion, your reputation determines how you cope with the environment around you, and if you have a good reputation, then you won't have a problem going through your daily routine.
 
I think I have changed over the years on that level. Before, I didn't really cared about my reputation. I was a heavy weed smoker until my early 20's. My whole family, teachers at high school, other student and people at work (not my employer however) knew about it. It gave me a reputation of a druggy person and all the stereotypes that goes with it among my peers. It didn't affected me because I knew who I was and an that I was a good person.

I've always wanted to maintain a good reputation among my friends however. I sometimes watch what I say or I can avoid conflicts to be seen as a respectful and gentle person. My reputation among my friends is more important to me than my reputation among my family or at work.

I give more importance to my reputation today than before. Like Rydia said, it's important to have a good reputation at work because what your employer could say to your future one. Same thing applies to school. I want to be seen as motivated and good by my teachers. I think that way they will give you a better assistance when you have difficulties if you have a good reputation among the teachers.
 
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I could care less about a "Reputation." All I want to know is that my closest friends know that I am a good person and that I can be respected and known for my good qualities. People I don't know or care about could matter less to me and their opinions are as good as garbage in my eyes. I just "do me" and do whatever makes me feel good. Too long have I been keen on what people think. I have some good friends who could give a rat's ass and their philosophy seems very credible, very sensible, and they seem happy.
 
I care to the point that I want to maintain a decent reputation, if you have a bad reputation it does you no favours in life at all. I won't do or say something that I know for a fact will give me a bad reputation but if it's just a case of someone not liking you because you have a different opinion to them over something them personally I couldn't give a shit what they think. I'd rather have a different opinion that be a sheep. That said, no one in my family or my friends are particularly judgmental.
 
I hit the "apathy button" a long time ago. I'm pretty sure I have a good reputation, but I simply don't care. I speak my mind, and I'm not afraid to tell someone just what I think. If I need to, I'll lie to people to make myself appear better than I am, but I'll only do that for so long, or until I get what I want or need. At the end of the day, I couldn't care less for my reputation.

The only person whose opinion of me matters is me.
 
Apathetic Nature detected:lew:

I dont strive to have a good reputation at any rate, if it comes about because I work hard and treat my friends and co-workers with respect and hold myself to a certain level then it just happens organically.

If you have to struggle and dont like people not liking you or the way you are percieved you really are focusing on the wrong things in life, after all a reputation doesn't pay the bills or feed you does?

So why struggle for an intangible thing that does not really matter, if you a good reputation have because you work hard and do good things then great, but dont do good things and work hard towards a reputation.

There are other more worthy goals in life.
 
Firstly, I guess you could say I couldn't give a God damn. And secondly, what is a pier (in reference to)? If my friends hate me, so be it. If they don't, great. I don't really have that many friends anyway so it wouldn't make much of a difference if they like or dislike me.
 
I know I used to care very much about my reputation when I was younger, but I think there came a point where I realized that I'm too different in a lot of things from most people for me to be able to pretend anything for the sake of a rep. A lot of the things people use as a barometer for "cool" or "uncool" are shallow, ephemeral, or simply just things I don't agree with, so when I finally realized that, I stopped caring about having any sort of specific reputation :hmmm:

I suppose the one thing I would like for people to think of me is that I'm honest and reliable, so that if they ever needed something they could come to me for it, because I usually don't mind, and I've always wished that I knew more people like that. However, there are times when having that sort of rep can be detrimental too, because you can easily get taken advantage of.

Other than that, if people/society would like to form some sort of perceived reputation about me then I don't really care either way; the only problem I could foresee would be if I ended up with a bad one that hurt my career in some way. But amongst hanging-out peers and whatnot, they can think whatever they want about me :andry:
 
Well, I'll say that your initial post, Tyler, sort of has a snap judgement aspect to it as well. But I'll give my thoughts on both. :lew:

For forum rep, it doesn't really matter to me. I've always had a lower rep than most. Most rep distributed sort of tends to be from a clique movement, and I've never been involved in one. That leads into the point I'll make about real life reputation.

For a simple answer, I don't care about reputation in real life. I prefer to be out of the center of attention, going unnoticed. Even back in my school days, it was the same way. People would gather in groups to study for exams or work on homework together, I always worked alone. Maybe that makes me unfriendly or anti-social, but I just prefered to work on things alone. Not to mention that I really didn't have an issue with having a very few amount of friends.

I've been told too that I tend to give off bad first impressions. I'm not totally sure why that is, but that's just how I come off to others I guess. :lew: It takes people a little time to get to know and understand me. Once they do, they see I'm not a bad guy. I even got told on these forums that I looked like an overweight drug addict. First impressions don't always tell the whole story. I'm not overweight, I've never done a single drug in my life and I've never drank alcohol. But if someone wants to make that snap judgement, that's their issue. I can be a good person, but not if you disregard me because of what impression shows. Your loss, I say.
 
First of all Shu. This is a very good thread and I wouldnt mind getting to know you more because of your views and opinions on matters. I am one of those philopshical people who tend to put situations into the form of metaphors so that others including myself can better understand them.

As for the question. My reputation is and will always be most important to myself. Life is like writing my own auto biography, and when I am dead in the ground I will be the only one reading this story...I should hope that it intrests me.

This is coming from a 24 year old with a bachelors in architeture, who was offered to be partners with my father in thriving business, and also left a marketing company on the verge of owning my own building....To leave to china to find a English teaching job to be with my chinese girlfriend (whom has perfect english). We met working in yellowstone national park.

Now to my family and friends this seems adventures yet not very practical for the advancment of my life. So I let my reputation burn. But you must admit sometimes your decisions affect your reputation like a double blade knife. M y decision made me seem irrational and ill prepared for life, yet at the same time it made me seem bold and a true believer in love. And when me and this women are married and come back to america it will be those whom judged me who have to face me, while I will carry a whole different perspective of the world after living in another country for a few years.

my reputation among friends matters little. They are my friend through thick and thin and if they should make me feel unsatisfied with the way that I am, than it is their reputations who suffer in my mind for not being understanding friends.

A reputation at work for me derives from one question. Am I passionate about my job? If I am than results will speak for themselves. I was in a marketing sales company and trained and built a team of 5 others seeling a car detailing product as fueling stations. (fully commision) Yet I was able to keep them attached to the company and have faith in me just by proving that positive results can be had as long as one doesnt lose their attitude.

Life is about love, truth, freedom. Those whom are slaves to their reputation are not free.

As my signature says. many times the difference between right and wrong is merely the difference between what people say that you should, or what you should not do. This is the difference between Independence and fear.

Work is my road, the detours are my adventures, I can take as many as I want as long as I dont lose the road. Because love is the destination. I hope you all enjoy this
 


As far as my forum rep goes...I don't really care too much about it. I speak my mind and if someone happens to agree with what I've said, then so be it.People who can multitask and do more than contribute good posts and can do GFX and etc...seem to have a very good rep and they deserve it because they spend a lot of their extra time helping the people out on this forum with sigs or whatever. Otherwise, I'm going to agree with Dan when I say I think there are cliques and friends rep their friends so I think that contributes to the reps around here.

In real life, I'd be lying if I said I didn't care about my rep. I've always maintained a good one, whether it be with my family, friends, or my employer. I think pretty much anyone would prefer to have a good rep because it makes life a bit easier and lets face it, when you have a bad rep, pretty much everyone knows about it and that's what they tend to associate you with: a bad label. People are going to label you no matter what and if they do that to me, I'd rather it be good than bad. There's always people I've come to recognize in life that I don't really care what they think about me (and they are few and far apart for me personally)...but for the most part I've made mostly friends in my life...so I care what they think of me, because they are my friends.
 
I use to care what others thought of me and what have you but, nowadays, I could give a rats ass. I put too much time and effort to hold up a good 'reputation' I mean, I have friends and, most people think I would have more but, i'm content. I'm going to be myself; I really don't care if it's good enough for you or not.

I guess it could be because i'm shy and at times, a bit awkward but, people just don't take the time to get to know others. In that case, me. I was always a bit anti-social and off to myself. I think its because so many have judged me, i'm use to it and so, I don't bother being the 'popular' kid with a good rep. I mean, I was a good kid but, I just didn't seem to fit in with other people. I realize now that it's okay to be different and maybe even an outcast.


As for the rep. on the forum, it's nice to know that people take the time to read what I say and, rep me for it xD. I always try to return the favor of course but, if I don't have a 'higher' rep then some others, i'm not gonna be phased. Like I said, if people take the time to read and like my post, i'm happy :ryan:
 
As far as forum rep goes, i don't get much. I get rep when someone agrees with my posts or as a thankyou for cnc-ing or something, but other than that I don't really socialize outside the graphics section, therefore I don't get that much rep, therefore I really don't care.

Now I know u werent talking about forum rep so I'll talk about real life rep. The way I see it, it depends on the types of people I'm around, and personality clashes and whatnot. You see, I recently moved schools (by recently i mean last year) and that was a great opportunity to renew my status in a new suburb, where pretty much nobody knew me. By being myself, I would've greatly destroyed my reputation there. But by maintaining your beliefs, while being a nice person and seeing who will appreciate you for who you are, you can develop your own reputation amongst different people. Thats for peers.

I don't really fit the stereotypical attitude problem for a teenager :) so I've never really had a problem with my parents. I was always in the top class, never got an A but always tried, so I maintained a fairly good relationship with my teachers. So I care about my reputation, it actually means something to me =)
 
I don't care about my rep in real life or on this site.Nothing against it.I do like it when people say they like my views.But it's only a gaming forum when all is said and done.

I use to care about my real life rep prior to 2001.
Now for personal reasons I don't care.I have made enemies in real life and I don't care that they hate me.I hate them just as much if not more.I hope they all go to hell.
smile.

The universe won't end if people dislike me and it won't make me rich or give me eternal life if they do.A billion years from now who will care ?
 
I don't really pay too much attention to what strangers say about me. My family and friends, yeah, I care what they think to some degree, but even then it's not that big a deal. I'm a teen, so I guess it's easy to assume that I SHOULD care about what others say (high school drama & all that). But I don't.

Whatever people think of me is fine, as long as they don't go over the edge with it by spreading false rumors (some people are just plain b*tchy like that). I don't have a particularly bad rep, but I do know some people like forming odd opinions behind my back. It's cool as long as they keep it amongst their little clique or just keeping it in their head. Caring about your rep is fine too. I just don't think it's something to stress about constantly.
 
I don't care about my reputation in life to the point where I am paranoid about what everyone thinks, but I like to make sure everyone has a good impression of me. I try my best not to offend, hurt or piss off people and help out my friends as best I can. Sometimes, I even help strangers if they really need it. I am probably renouned for my intelligence and my friends know this, so they are not afraid to come to me for help if needed. If someone hates me or dislikes me, I'm not that bothered. I just get over it. I don't care about what they think.
Also, you should remember that everyone acts differently in public to keep up their reputation. No one is exactly the same from when they are in the house, to when they go out. You will always have a little part of your mind that worries about what people think, it's just that some people can suppress that thought more than others.
 
I was never particularly popular at school, so I never had much of a reputation when I was younger. Like most kids, I wanted to be popular, so that I didn't have a reputation I liked was something that stressed me out immensely. Now that I'm older, I don't really care whether I have one or not. I don't try to keep up any particular appearance, I just say what I feel like.

If I have a reputation now, I'm oblivious to it...and I'd prefer to keep it that way, to be honest. What other people think of me isn't really my concern.
 
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