Negative 'Downvoting' Removed

David [Hi-Fi] Moore

Friendly forum users!

As of today, we're disabling Negative Reputation in the forums. Positive Reputation, or "Upvoting" will remain in place. Reputation history and current standings should be unaffected by the change.

Ice IX, the forum moderators and myself have considered and discussed the Reputation System at length and have decided that removing Negative voting was an idea worthy of experimenting with. If it doesn't work out, downvoting can certainly return.

Our hope is that by eliminating Negative voting, many forum users will feel less intimidated to post and quick and easy negativity will be somewhat lessened. Abuse of the system, including "revenge downvoting" of multiple, unrelated posts goes away.

All other functionality will remain in place, so the community will still be able to report any abusive or rule-breaking posts, and of course, comment constructively on topics they might disagree with.

Thanks for working with us to help foster a welcoming, inclusive and friendly forum for all users.