I can only reinforce my own view on the reputation issue....
I see Rep points (I have no problem with calling them that) as Peer Group endorsement (or censure) of anything that gets posted. Tht is healthy and constructive if done with responsibility and care. To leave any sort of judgement solely to the Mods is unfair (IMHO) because they should have confidence that we (the Bros) can Manage it ourselves and let them get on with more important stuff.
I would like to see somehow that a negative entry gets some sort of explanation, in case it is a genuine slip up. I dont know if this is possible or not.
What we had before was simple, easy and quick. if we now get over- complex with Military rankings, restrictions on posting numbers or some such arbitrary reputation statistic we will get into endless arguements.
I dont think I ever saw any comments in the line of "he has got more points than me, or less points and so on." its only an interest thing, not Earth shattering !!!
It sems that this whole current saga came about because Robert was concerned enough about a negative point to try to find out who and why. We know Robert is meticulous, timely and accurate with his info...ALWAYS and he seems to be the sort of person who always tries to help to the best of his ability. Anybody on this Forum for more than 10 minutes must surely know this. Likely the negative rep came from a guest or a complete newbie
So I think that the only change I would introduce is to prohibit Guests from posting until they had completed the membership registration and thus became "accountable" for what they say or do. The we can go back to the old format...which worked