Ask Greg C. He can tell you all about how much rep means, and how much it apparently hurts feelings when one gets bad rep....oh no, bad rep! :surprise: So many little bitches in the world, and not near enough time to slap them all.
Indeed, don't forget to ask him if he ever comes back from being
BANNED.
The irony never ends...
The fact that an otherwise useful member got himself banned, in part because of rep issues, goes to show how ridiculous the situation has become.
I think the fatal flaw of the rep system is that it does not accord with real life. In real human interactions we overtly thank people for good deeds once, with sincerity (thank you button). If we have a grievance with someone we would covertly express our complaint to a higher authority (report button). The authorities then discipline the offender, we sit back and watch.
Any proposed system that allows a user to overtly "dislike" something is also contrary to human nature. It is no accident that facebook does not have a dislike button. In real life if we dislike something we walk away or ignore it or whinge to someone else about it. We NEVER (unless you want a punch in the face) go up to that person and say we dislike them.
We don't usually display on our sleeve how many times we've been thanked, but in this case, it would be the most reliable determinant of the poster's "worth". It truly indicates quality, as opposed to post count, which indicates you-know-what. There should probably be a "bump" button as well (no more than 5 per day or whatever) which would reduce thread pollution and bogus post counts. High post counts could just be displayed publically as >1,000 or whatever (your real post count would still be displayed privately).
Just some thoughts.
