Not to mention, this usually draws the ire of all the ghostie posters silently downrepping people due to forms of tenderness in the posterior regions. :3

Vestin... As much as I respect you, that was a terrible comparison. I'll let you figure out why :-P

In its current form, it's far too easy to abuse, it's as simple as that. And yes, there actually are peopple who will create multiple accounts just to downrate posts, because people are gibbons like that.

It might be solved by only allowing people with certain amount of rep to up/downrep others, it is a system put in place by StackExchange (actually, forums in general should learn from stack exchange, a lot of their mechanics are applicable to opinionated discussions as well). However, there is still a 'personal' factor involved, which basically means that people won't only downrep a post they find detrimental, but also all the other posts by the author, which is just griefing and it would be nice to get rid of that altogether.

You ass, I forgot to check the dates!
...
Yes, it's somehow your fault.

LOL. Thank you, good sir, for giving me a hearty laugh. :D

Yeah, sorry about the black magic. Twas that or start a new thread and have the discussion repeat. Tho I suppose I might have started a new thread and linked this one. But at least this way it's all in one place? Okay, so maybe that's a poor excuse... would you believe that Cthulhu made me do it?

Just remove the "-" option and leave 2 options:

"+" and "Report spam"

There, all issues resolved

Yeah, that's the gist of the new wishlist entry:

http://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/remove_option_to_downvote_downrep

You can add what you typed above as a comment to clarify it (or I can do it).

Whats wrong with downrep when its justified?

It often isn't justified.

Vestin and I had an interesting conversation about it months back. The gist of my thoughts are around:

http://www.gog.com/forum/general/vote_for_replacement_of_rep_system_with_simple_postcounts/post66

Tbh, I don't feel much like debating it again. Just wanted to bump the thread for consideration by those who missed it the first time around because there seems to be much downrepping going around recently.

I'd like if GOG could just improve the rep system, instead of removing it.
Post number could be somehow considered in the rep formula or simply shown in another counter.

Just make the up/down rate thingy not directly effect rep.... at least not untill the post/reply becomes "low rated" or "high rated", then just do a flat +1 or -1. not this hidden negative rep down rates.

Not to mention post count can be abused to.

This has to be the best fix/compromise I can think of. Make it a tiny 'group of people' that cause rep to go down by 1 point only... they need to get rid of a individuals ability to bring peoples rep down by themselves.

edit: i know in a few places that use rep/karma/points, that they limit it to something like "you cant give this person rep until you give 5 other people rep first" and so on examples.