[artdutra04]

It is not just that one's views may contradict those of the thread at hand, it is more often how those ideas are presented.

I've only received negative reputation once*. Seriously.

And I've disagreed with a lot of people.

If you find yourself often receiving the red dots of doom, then start a series of private messages with the people who sent them your way. See what it was that made them decide that.

Sometimes (and I know I've been guilty of this once), people make mistakes and may overreact to a message. They may be in a hurry or having a bad day, and read through the thread quickly and may miss a critical part of a post, a part which lacking from the original post can me it take an entirely different attitude.

If they end up not having a valid reason, or stating that they just disagree with your ideas, then report it to the moderators as an abuse of the reputation system.

A society without contrasting ideas will never move forward; however those contrasting ideas must be based on fact, must be rational/logical, and must be presented in a respectful manner. As long as all posts adhere to those guidelines, there should never be a need for negative reputation.



*And it ended up being something which the other user thought I was wrong about a particular aspect of shop safety. I really didn't care, as I knew that my advice was 100% in line with that of all OSHA and industry-approved safety guidelines, but it was one area where I thought that FIRST had gone way overboard in their quest for "safety". But that's another topic for another day...