"Mana" works better than "kudos" for me but that's because "Mana", the Sanskrit word, has layers of meaning, which are difficult for me to convey. Elders, the wise, the helpful, betters, all figure in that little word.
However, the majority might prefer "kudos" since its meaning is pretty clear.
Perhaps you can leave it as "Mana" for now and change it to "kudos" if you get too many people asking what the heck it means or no one giving Mana to anyone.
Many many years ago I remember having to collect mana when I was playing Populus on my Playstation - in time, my increased mana allowed me to fry people with bolts of lightning and organise bee attacks. I'm not sure whether kudos gives you that power so I'm happy increasing my mana and waiting to become all powerful. x Ben x
Oh my, I just saw how much mana I got. I am overwhelmed! However, now I will be awake all night wondering if I have been perceived as wise, helpful, or an elder. (I'm nobody's mama, Greek or otherwise). I do appreciate the attention and the respect. Thanks.
The mana you give depends on the mana you have, which depends on the mana others give you as well as the mana you give others. A man with more mana gives higher mana when he gives mana to another man but need not necessarily receive more mana when given mana by the other man. Giving mana indiscriminately also diminishes ones own mana.
See what I meana?
As for the four manas, it looks like everyone is born in this forum with four unactivated manas (grey). As more people give mana to the newborn they (the manas) change colour and form. If you take away mana you gave before, the colour and/or form will change again.
Mana is an advanced iterative algorithm to determine the most respected users
A user "adds mana" to other users she respects, and the more mana she has, the more the increase in recipients' manas. A user can also change her mind, and remove mana from someone to whom she added mana before. However, the more members a member adds mana to, the less the effect of those mana additions.
For example, let's assume that your mana is 3 out of 4. If you want to add mana to someone then you basically add him/her 3 points divided by the number of members to whom you added mana before. If you added mana to one member before, the amount of mana you would add is 3/(1+1)=1.5 points.
This is a dynamic process. Whenever someone adds or removes mana, the manas of all members are calculated from scratch.
Finally, mana takes the normal distribution rule into account, and it gets increasingly accurate as you get more members"
okay, i'm seeing the color differences. (colorblind, so it didn't jump out at me.) but why do some people i hardly know (and hardly post) have more mana than paul? are they giving themselves mana?
Just to confuse matters further, I currently have three personae - Paul Thain, psthain & thain and it seems the Forum's largesse and mana has been sub-divided accordingly
Why am I losing mana? What did I do to deserve this? Does that mean I am losing respect? Oh, dear, please don't send me back to therapy after so many years on my own. Send me more mana instead! I will be happy to reciprocate if I can figure out how to this works....
When I was a child I lived in Baghdad and 'mana' was a very sweet sort of ball of sugar and dried fruits and nuts that we used to get at school as a reward if we were particularly good. Needless to say I never got any!
