Re: Appropriate use of reputation points
 

As Sammy said, its in your usercp. At the top of the same table which lists the rep you've received, there's a link which says "Latest reputation given." Or, you could just follow this link. :)

Re: Appropriate use of reputation points
 

I do think the reputation points does have it's up's and down's. The one thing that it serves the best purpose for is, I think, motivating people to actively participate in the forums. :cool:
I know that most people don't approve of the "dissaprove" option but it does serve a purpose for letting the offender know of what he or she did wrong

Re: Appropriate use of reputation points
 

Here is how I use rep: I positive any really helpful or insightful posts, or posts that obviously took a long time to write, are worth reading, and create good discussion

I negative rep only for blatant "we have iphones great deals" spam, or when a "trouble" or extremely anti-GP poster posts, and then posts again refusing to apologize. For example, compare this thread to this thread. In the first one, I believe that the original post contained a list of overrated teams as well. This was immediately pointed out as anti-GP by Koko Ed. The poster realized this, and immediately apologized and edited the original post.

However, in the second thread, the poster continued to try to push their calling Dean Kamen names through with another post after multiple posters had pointed out that posting this was kind of uncalled for. If they had said in their second post something to the effect of "sorry, i didn't mean to sound that harsh, I was just pointing it out" (kind of hard to do with such an accusation in their first post, but you get the idea,) I wouldn't have negative repped them.

I get most of my rep from insightful or helpful posts like those mentioned above. ex. analysis of 2007 game, posting of a CAD drivetrain, game idea in game design thread that someone liked, opinion on student build vs. mentor build, etc.