[GeeTwo]

Unless you post a WAI photo or frame a post in terms of your role on your team, I am likely to be unaware whether you are a student or mentor or alumnus or otherwise. I realize I may be in the minority there, but I can't really comment on the student-vs-mentor issue in too much detail.

The reputation system is better than nothing, and better than some other systems, but far from perfect. Most of my rep points seem to come from a handful of reps given by individuals on the first and second pages of the rep sheet (sort members by reputation). The ones that I like the most are those with comments like "Suggestion worked 100% Thank you so much!", even if they're only worth a few points.

Negative and neutral reps with a decent explanation are good at reminding one to read and/or think about posts before replying. There have also been a few times where the same post has drawn both positive and negative rep; that is always amusing.

Negative reps which seem to come out of the blue, with meaningless explanations or from people who read something into a post that isn't there (even when I look for it) are useless. If I don't know what I did wrong, how can I fix it?

Heretofore, I have only given 15 reps in 28 months, all positive. I have sent a similar number of PMs on negative issues. I will probably begin giving rep points a bit more often, taking care to explain why.

Finally, I am against changing "reputation beyond repute" to "reputation above reproach". The one that's there is a bit silly, but the proposed change is too strong for the number of people with that rating.