[Madison]

I like the reputation system that's in place and, so far, am comfortable with how it's being used.

Like John, the members with the most reputation are people I admire and respect, and I believe that they are deserving of their many little green dots. I believe this system is working because, when I see a member with higher reputation than I'd have anticipated, I often go back and find meaningful contributions from them that I had previously missed.

When I'm given negative reputation, I often initiate a private conversation to discuss what about my post people feel negatively about and decide whether or not it's something I'm interested in changing. I probably don't do the same for positive reputation nearly enough and maybe it's time that I showed more appreciation to the people who take the time to recognize the contributions I try to make.

The system's not broken and nobody with high reputation is undeserving of the accolade. Maybe it's time I looked at who has low reputation and investigated if they're deserving of that.