Is rep really such a big deal?

No it is not. But when you get something wrong then it will be. =)

He's not the only one. I can think of several others that were the same way and I think only one of them was an actual troll. The way you approach a new forum dictates how you're treated early on. You can generally recover from just about anything that doesn't cause your account to be banned, but it can take a long time to do.

And then there are the folks who are OK, except in a politics or religion topic, which is really why they need to split out those discussions into their own forum. Or if they're really committed to freedom of speech, do like Jick did over at KoL and give flaming it's own forum where the only moderation there is deleting illegal materials.
Apparently, the first few times I was downrepped it was for pointing out how unimportant rep was.

What you have to realize is that having a lot of rep, means your penis or breasts are huge as appropriate. And having little rep means that you're a wuss. Same deal as caliber size and engine displacement, the larger they are, the larger the wang is.

Thats it, I'm never de-reping anyone ever again ever no matter what. Who the hell am I to judge what is and is not appropriate? Shit, I'm a troll and a lurker; like I have the right to give someone else shit for it!

Now someone please pass me the Grey Poupon, it's leisure time!

I second this.

It really pisses me off that some people can't understand the use of a down rep button, regardless of how important the reputation system is. Vestin spelled it out pretty well especially with that gif picture: We should all smile!

The fact that Vestin is putting down people with Autism does not make me laugh, and it's annoying it's highly repped.

Down rep them, that would show them...

Wow, you have not only missed the point, the plane you were sitting in crashed in it and shattered it completely, turning it into something entirely different ... That you then proceeded to miss.

And here I was thinking the + and - buttons were mutually ignored, unless for obvious spam. Still couldn't give a lesser fuck, though. This is nowhere near being an issue.

Frankly - I was more worried people would point out how innacurate of a description that is (assuming it is). I initially wanted to go with OCD but there is nothing compulsive about being unnerved by slight imperfections; after all - I wasn't writing about any twitches, fugue - no actions, merely perception. "Obsessive" alone doesn't really telegraph the idea well, so I settled for "autistic". In hindsight - I could've gone with "neurotic", which is how Ruth Benedict described the child rearing in Japan, where kids are afraid to sit on cracks between mats, etc... but that's a bit of an antiquated term.

More importantly, though, I'm not "putting [anyone] down". I'm aware that this is somewhat of a sensitive issue, so let me try to elaborate: imagine a doctor (a good and dedicated one, to make things easier). Does he hate sick people ? No. Does he hate sicknesses ? You bet. As such - I'm fairly certain disliking autism is fine, disliking autistic people for being autistic... less so.

Even if you ignore all of the above, unless the READER is prejudiced and reads between the lines that autism is inherently worse of a disorder (spectrum) that others, what I have said is akin to "I'm not colorblind - this is disgustingly garish !". Note that the example sentence says nothing about how I perceive colorblindness or people suffering from it. I don't have to add "Some people suffer from X... and that's terrible D: !" every time I mention something unfortunate that affects a number of human beings. You should be able to tell that I am not malicious or, even better, assume such as default and only verify that hypothesis upon seeing evidence to the contrary.

Finally - you can always hit the minus button if you still disagree. I appreciate people's honest feedback.

Let me assure you that it is. However I understand there was no malice or prejudice, just ignorance, so I didn't hit the minus button :).

smiley faces make everything better :).

:)

Thank God. I LOVE to be Santa Clause but I just spent cash I didn't even have on NWN2 and I'd hate to have to go back on the street and start turning tricks for game money...AGAIN.

Hell. I just hit the minus button all the time. A lower rated post gets read more than a highly rated post because people have to click to view the poorly rated post.

Kind of like 'Parental Advisory Stickers'.