[Fathom Zero]

People are free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that a +30 or -30 karma/rep/zugs/barnstars is an accurate measure of what someone is like to someone new - whom is, by the way, the only type of person that this is targeted toward, from what I've seen.

Every new website or forum I go to, if you've got a massive amount of negative rep, you're the asshole everyone hates. If you've got a massive amount of positive rep, you're the asshole everyone else seems to love. And the middle ground is irrelevant because they're not gonna get any attention compared to the larger numbers, if numbers are all there is to garner attention.

Moreover, even though that you guys don't (and should not) defer to us for final say in such a matter, I think it was extremely telling considering what happened during the ZuggaZugga debacle just how much we wanted something like this, if not how much it would ruthlessly be abused.

Of course, I could just be terribly jaded and just chalk it up to my hatred of arbitrary numeration and false competition. If I took the time to down-rate every bad joke, every terrible point, every stupid contribution, then there would be a lot more red pickles. Believe me, I have seething hatred for some people on here, and if it looks like I'm joking, I'm not. It'd be best not to have any red pickles at all, like the internet training wheels this system seems to be in place for.