I was just thinking about this, and thought that I would share. Instead of assigning both positive and negative reputation points, why not just assign negative points? The way I could envision such a system working is that everyone starts out as a Hall Of Famer (I got this idea from the "Dangerous Minds" movie), and that as you make posts that others disagree with, it would take 3 disagreements on a specific post before your "total" is knocked down by a point. After 3 people have disagreed with you on a specific post, the "disagreement count" for that post is reset to zero. Each week your post count will rise by 1 point. For every 7-consecutive days you refrain from posting, your post count will rise another point. Kind of like cutting back an ugly bush before it starts to grow flowers. This might be akin to taking a sabbatical to clear your head. I think this would enable everyone to feel as if they belong in the community, and only those who consistently tick others off, would find themselves without a posting job for awhle. Another advantage that I see is that it would prevent certain posters from fraternizing and helping to keep their reputation points high. I think we can all agree that it's subjective as to what is a "good post" and what is a "bad post". Why not make it easier and more enjoyable for everyone by letting all posts have equality, except for the obviously bad ones? Here's an example:
Forum Groups:
A - Miscellaneous
1 - Hall Of Fame
2 - Non-Baseball Chatter
B - Baseball
1 - Cincinnati Reds Talk
2 - Reds Live!
x - Fantasy Island
C - Archives (only readable)
x - The Archives
Ranks: (Can Post In)
100-90 Hall Of Famer (A+B)
89-80 All-Star (A2+B)
79-70 Solid Position Player (B)
69-60 Solid Utility Player (B2+Bx)
59-50 Pine Rider (Bx)
49-40 Dead Contract (nothing)
starting points: 100
01/01/05 bad post: 95 (15 disagreements)
01/02/05 bad post: 91 (12 disagreements)
01/03/05 bad post: 86 (15 disagreements), A2+B
01/04/05 bad post: 85 (3 disagreements), A2+B
01/05/05 bad post: 79 (18 disagreements), B
01/08/05 one week has passed: 80, B
01/12/05 rested 7 consecutive days: 81, A2+B
I'm thinking about trying this system on a site that I run, just to see what its affects are.