I do not believe this system will used sensibly. The post above shows 3 minus points at time of posting this. Why? There is nothing in that comment deserving of such abuse. That’s no more than a reaction against an individual who has a ‘reputation’ for being unpopular. What ever happened to good manners and accountability? When did the easy option become preferred to proper investigation, and then intelligent appraisal and interaction? Why pander to those who either can’t be bothered taking the extra minute to say thank you properly, or those who will inevitably and interminably hide behind the anonymity of a red button to take side swipes at members they don’t like? Where is the equality of exposure that signals the ‘reputation’ of the person awarding the reputation point? How is this monitored, is it monitored, and if so why should that not be public information? If not, where is the protection from abuse? I fully admit to not being as smart or as industrious as many of the leading lights in this forum, but I know who they are and I enjoyed learning that over time by reading people’s posts, averaging out their worth, and mentally placing them in a pecking order of clever to stupid, good to bad, instructive to destructive, good egg to rotten apple. Similarly, I hope I’m not the worst offender when it comes to inappropriate posts, lack of courtesy, deliberate incitement, or deadly-dullness (at least not usually), but again I know the members who I believe are guilty of these traits and I learned that through reading what they have to say. I’m sure the vast majority of members have gone through a similar process, and newcomers should be trusted to do the same without arbitrary beauty parade scores being flashed up for them. I can’t see how a reputation score can possibly be more valuable than taking the trouble to get to know your peers and using a wee bit of wit to search out those who bring most value to the forum. Reputations are subjective and all sorts of prejudices get caught up in the judgement of a person’s character and worth. The true worth of an individual post has nothing to do with personal consensus. The awarding of points, whether they are fairly assigned or not, is divisive at best and abdicates judgement to the mob at worst. I cannot understand how this will increase enjoyment of the forum in any way. Surely it is better to encourage courtesy in applauding a valuable post, and require integrity in challenging a valueless one through proper communication - in public. Unless, of course, that’s not the point and all this is, is a rather clumsy moderating tool. Is it?