I never thought I'd see the day I'd agree with animeniax...

Look, the rep system is a toy. It's a popularity contest. It's stupid. It's trivial. It's easily subverted. It's easily exploited. Yadda yadda yadda.

It's not meant to be a user banning system. If people are breaking rules, ban them. If people are doing things that aren't necessarily against the rules but are ban-worthy, warn and/or ban them. If people are just being stupid ... well ... people are stupid, deal with it.

I would purge the entire rep table, reset the scores and then disable the system entirely before I let it be used as a referendum on banning.

I think it was Jefferson who said something about democracy being two wolves and a sheep discussing what to have for lunch... just some food for thought.

I've said before, if you don't like the rep system -- if you think it's pointless, if you think it's exploitable, if you think it colors people's opinion of you in ways you'd rather not have their opinions colored, or if you just don't like the idea, just disable showing it. People will still rep you, but not as much, and you can totally ignore it.

I'm getting really sick of the petty bickering and stupidity that this thread has degenerated into though. So I'm putting a stop to it. Locked. If you have issues with persistent harassment or other problems with the system, send me a PM, don't air your dirty laundry in public.