Let's talk about reputation here...

[Cody Carey]

I don't necessarily think that the rep system is a popularity contest. Sure, there are people who get rep because of the fact that they are well known... But there are also people who earn it. I believe that while the rep system does discourage new people from posting a thought if it is contradictory to one of the "superpowers", It also encourages them to post helpful/thoughtful things about other matters.

Long ago, when I was new to these forums (which I still arguably am,) I was sort of afraid to post anything that was what I felt; but one day I thought "What the hey" and posted something which I thought that differed from the mainstream opinion anyway. To my surprise, very few people actually negative repped me... and those were only the ones with which I was directly disagreeing. I actually got a lot more positive rep for posting what I thought.

While there are some people who abuse the system, and enjoy giving negative rep for stupid things like not knowing to search because it is your first post, there are also those who give rep as a reward, or only give neg rep for something that is blatently offensive.

The rep system does have its corruptions, but so does anything that is made by man.