Agreed. People post minus rep for ridiculous reasons,like responding to a question about whether you liked Descent 1 better or thought it was a better game than Descent 2, just to make something up at random. Basically worthless and especially punishing of anyone with the courage to buck the tide. And those are in short supply anywhere, especially on forums, which tend to set up worship systems in an extremely creepy way over time. There are few forums I've been on that don't become in some sense a sort of truly yecch popularity contest. People create drama even where none exists or is needed.
And frankly some people are just destructive dullards. Check out the reviews on Amazon for confirmation. Many are good, but there are devoted types who will simply negatively rate anyone regardless of the quality of their contribution, simply because they disagree with them. Political books and vendor fanboi situations like camera reviews (Canon afficionados vs. Nikon ones) illustrate how prevalent stupidity and dishonesty are.
I'm in no hurry to include it here because at its very best its worthless. Ideas stand or fall on their own merit. They don't need a popularity contest.

Blarg, I am going to + your post because we agree with each other!
Actually I'm not, I'm going to shut my eyes tight and pretend the system doesn't exist.

Eh, I don't mind it too much. Though yes, it does have the problem that it's easy to go from "good poster/bad poster" to "agrees/disagrees with the forums' common consensus" as the basis for rating posts.

The reputation system make things worse than better. If it is meant to be a way to let the users "rate" the posts, it's an utter failure because a minus or a plus is too much straight to be meaningful enough.
I mean, you rate "minus" this post, but "WHY" you have rated minus? You haven't the ability to refine your motivations, and the post's author will never know how he has collected a minus.
Plus, for me, it's a bit disappointing: since now I've never insulted anyone and I try to be civil and affordable. Not too much, anyway, to not to give a good "go fuck yourselves" to the EA executives because they only deserve this kind of compliment.
I don't die for a more "reputable" rate for my account on the forum, anyway. At the end of the day I don't give a damn because I like more reasoning and arguing than looking at a pitiful little number with a minus or a plus next to it....

I'm trying very hard not to click the "-" sign on your posts, since I'm pretty annoyed that you have the time to lurk the forums so much.
You're a nice person, but it's all about envy for some of us. :D

I don't like the fact that the rep system gets misused by some, to -1 someone just because they disagree with that person. But that's how it is when it's up to the forummembers themselves to "police" the forums. I think it would be much better if the GOG team get some moderators asap and let them handle a penalty system (not necessarily the -1 system). On the other hand, I think we should keep the +1 system, as it can't really be misused and it's actually a nice way to encourage good behaivior on the boards.

I think the general consensus we're seeing here is it's too easy of a system to abuse if someone's opinion differs from the norm.
I think my first negative rating was because I posted a thread suggesting to vote for Wasteland on the wishlist and I didn't know there was already a thread about it because search did not turn up anything. In that example the right thing to do was what a friendly member of the community did, and point me to the thread in question.
But I still got a negative rating, and as far as I'm concerned I checked the search option and found nothing, so I did nothing wrong. I highly doubt I'll be able to max my rep because frankly the easiest way to do it is to provide solutions for questions regarding these games, and most of these games I haven't played before.
What I can offer is my honest opinion and I 99% of the time do not flame, so there's that. As far as that will take me in this rep system remains to be seen, though.
Maybe we should vote to remove it? What do you guys think? I don't like the idea of a popularity contest anymore than anyone else here.
-Cym

I don't really care all that much about the rep system one way or the other, since I mostly ignore it.
On the other hand, i don't like the fact that posts with negative ratings are hidden by default, because it means that many users won't ever get to read some of the posts on the forum.
I think this forum could really do without that kind of censorship, especially since most of the community are mature enough to just ignore trolls and flamers.

I totally agree with both your statements here, the rep system is left for those who really care about that stuff. We all know the true "rep" cannot be clicked on someone, it has to be earned!
Defaulting the hiding of negative posts gives a possibility for abusing the rep system.
Edit: it's better to reply in agreement than click the +1 in my opinion, mostly because it makes discussions move forward. Oh! and that +1 on mystral's post isn't mine! =D

+1 for reminding me of the auto hiding of negative rated posts. I think this feature should be removed as well.

So explain me this: why in the hell this post has been minused?!? Because I've expressed my opinion on the sad state of things (from a political, civil, judiciary, moral, economical standpoint) in Italy? WTF? I can't express my opinions because this is moronic for you or some one else? Oh please, c'mon, you'd deserve a -10 minus, this is censorship apology :-P
The trolls usually need to be fed, if you let them starve you won't need some crappy system like this "reputation" thingy whose only utility is... well, dunno what is its utility up to now :-P

For the most part, your post is actually quite agreeable and I find nothing wrong with it. The Rep system works absolutely perfectly, in theory.
The problem we're facing is those same idiots who post mindless drivel are -1'ing posts that either attempt to correct, probe into the discussion, or pose a viewpoint opposite to the reader. Like stated earlier, someone received a -1 for saying they enjoyed a game! (although, to be honest I would probably -1 anyone who said any Final Fantasy was the best RPG ever, because usually, in those situations, they haven't played every RPG..) The system which, as you so stated works absolutely fantastically in theory, is being abused. It's been suspected that people have made multiple accounts to downvote someone, for having a question, or an opinion, and not being satisfied with an answer.
Perhaps with the proposed fix of removing a -1 option, and perhaps making it so you have to have at least some rep to give a +1, the situation might be less abuseable. I myself am probably the most downvoted person here, simply because I either A.) Have the highest Rep already, or B.) have ticked off a handful of people. Infact, so many people have taken notice of me, I've been directly mentioned by name in a weekly update. Now I do consider myself to be (most of the time) a polite, well thought out poster of these forums, but the way it appears due to my controversy and fame, that if I post an answer, there couldn't be any other answer, or that because of my rep, I'm like the final word or something, I by no means am the final word on anything. Anyway +1 to you sir
Because of lack of a PM, I am forced to remind you that swearing is not allowed on these boards (I've seen GOG.com staffers get upset by it, and I urge you to edit your post).

You didn't get -2 rep from one click on your post. Takes a few to take you down even one rep. And I hardly said you can't express your opinions. I do it all the time, and I do it loudly from the nearest rooftop if necessary. But I am prepared for the fact that some people won't like it and either ignores me or takes action against me.
Making a fuzz over a - or two is nothing more than whining about not having a cup to protect your e-peen. Guess what? This isn't censorship. It's the natural extension of Free Speech. Free Speech was never a term that said "You can say whatever you want and get away with it". It says "You can say whatever you want and take the consequences of it."
Yelling Censorship and proclaiming Free Speech is the first tool in the box from those who are terrified of being ignored by the people who either don't care or disagree.
Edit: New post after the one I responded to.
Yes, there's things that can be fixed. I do agree that there should be a requirement before getting to the stage where the rating buttons are visible. Let's say +5 Rep or something to that effect.
Any system can be abused, but I am far more concerned with the consequences of having no system in place to protect my browsing experience than with the very few consequences of one being abused a bit. Because frankly, the cases of abuse are probably going to dwindle into nothing. That kind of person rarely bother to stick around such communities for long anyway.

Yes, the other ones was because I've said that Colin McRae Rally 2005 is the worst release ever of GOG.com because I think GOG should focus more on "old" games, not yesterday games. A pretty impressive and unbearable standpoint, it deserved -10 and so on, bravo!
Whining about? Oh no, you have misunderstood: I don't give a damn and surely I won't tear apart my hairs for it :-D
Again, you're wrong and trying to speak for myself and not simply for yourself: I've never talked about "Free speech", indeed, and I don't think the "reps" system is about that kind of thing. The "Censorship" is in regard of that post alone, not in the whole.