Because it's a number, and it's near your username and avatar, and there are nifty stars, and it goes up the longer you stay here. Artificial value.

That's not ideal imo. There's a reason there's a up and downrep button. Balance, you know.

Given the posts I've seen down voted I wouldn't be at all fussed about making the same 'mistake' again* In fact, upsetting certain 'sensitive' people further with more of the same would seem like the way to go.

After all, who gives a fuck about rep?

* Unless I really was in the wrong about something. But let's face it, most who down vote just do so because they disagree and lack even enough balls to post their objection, so instead hide behind the down vote option. That's the reason I don't like the rep system. It shines a light on the scum that lurks beneath the surface.

No. The threads would go on much longer than necessary.

"Plus 1 for potatoes!"

"Minus 1 for not liking cheese!"

"Oh, sorry, minus another for uni-brow!"

If a person is intelligent enough to understand your objection, they are not worth downvoting; they were just factually wrong, it happens. If a person is hopeless enough to warrant downvoting, an explanation wouldn't help and would only cause everyone involved undue distress (just look at [unspecified poster] who thinks public downvotes are the way to go and still bawws about me allegedly having downvoted him in that other thread that's already buried under a hundred of giveaways). This is good, because a single downvote doesn't do shit and goes completely unnoticed.

However - statistically, if a person is causing public outrage and subsequent downrepping (low rating), someone will have enough free time on their hands to post a "dafuq, dude", so the offender will have an opportunity to assess their behavior.

TL;DR: rep should be kept as it is.

Unfortunately we've got enough morons among the lurkers on this site to crush and logical, reasoned argument as to how rep should work.

Yeah, sure it takes a lot of idiots to abuse the system and just down vote anything they don't like the look of for any given reason. But we've got those idiots to spare. And the thing about rep is that it's so utterly pointless that it's only really these idiots that are going to miss it - as it's their only interaction with the community. I'd quite like to cut that connection.

My thinking is concern over how the average person will receive you telling them you downvoted them. I think handing out +1s and -1s is basically like giving someone a warm fuzzie with a smile or pat on the back, or pissing on them by calling them an asshole or piece of shit. How would you feel if you're strolling through your day, feeling good, when a total stranger comes up to you and says "you actually left the house looking like that?!" It just seems needlessly rude.

Plus, even though GOG caters to older gamers, there's no telling if the person I'm talking to is a teen or a child. What kind of creep would I be to just cut them down (not to say that adults are immune to offense)?

OTOH, if you don't point out and explain poor posts, people will continue their poor behavior. I agree that downvoting is stupid if you're doing it just because you disagree. I would hope the average poster here would be above that.

I guess for me, I'm curious about how a "typical" person here would receive a negative comment. Would they take it as constructive criticism, or would they take it like YouTube:

"I'm giving you -1 because I think..."
"FUCK YOU YOU ##$%#$%@#$%@#$%!!!!11!!!"

The more "black box" things are, the more it makes users think about their actions. And that's a good think.

Black box?

It refers to an opaque implementation. I'd rather not know the inner workings of the rep system. Or worry about it.

Yeah but I haven't found anyone who matches his stupidity.

Post 8

Post 19

Not to reopen old wounds, but what was so bad about either of these posts?

To be fair I (somewhat stupidly) suggested it be anonymous as I figured if I suggested that the names of anyone downvoting a post should be listed somewhere on a user's interface then people would be more opposed to such an idea. As such, I re-propose the same as I did before, but make it so that every up/downrate can be checked(But only by the posts's author and no one else, and possibly only allow the checking of such on posts marked low/high rated.) as to who rated it/etc. This......great idea, imo.