I'd like to add to this thread based on what has happened to me recently.
I had posted a thread where I was just expressing myself about a past relationship in the singles forum, and a lot of angry and bitter women took offense that I basically said I wouldn't date a girl unless she was beautiful on the inside as well as the outside. I guess they took it for being cocky, but it was never meant to be that way.
Anyway, I received quite a bit of negative rep points and comments, and it really bothered me with some of the things people had said in them. It is anonymous, and I believe some of the comments were not conductive to a christian website. They were really harsh, mean spirited, and spiteful, and I don't think a real christian would really have said that to one of their brothers in Christ.
That being said, I'm fine with criticism, but I believe everyone should at least have enough respect for the person they give it to, as well as themselves, to give their name within the comment. None of those harsh critical rep comments had any names whatsoever, but they sure did have some spiteful things to say about me expressing my thoughts, emotions, and feelings. It completely put me off as a poster to think that I would express myself and someone would take it so negatively in such a manner, and yet it wasn't just one person that did it.
In another thread, I was given a negative rep point/comment because they said I used very "distasteful ugly language and I was an ignorant person" for saying something that was completely not a bad word, nor was it even meant to be in the context of the post. I believe that person was not a native english speaker, because they clearly misinterpreted the wording... which I couldn't really find anything that was bad... but the point remains. It was anonymous, and they had no respect for me enough to give their name within it.
I'm fine with criticism, but not with overly harsh, spiteful, mean-spirited, ignorant, and classless comments within the negative rep comments. I'm also not fine with them all being anonymous, which shows a complete lack of respect on their parts toward me.
That being said, almost everyone that has given me positive rep points/comments, they have all given their names within the comment section. Almost ALL of them have done that. NONE of the negative rep comments had given their name or any clue as to who they were.
I'd really appreciate it if you either remove the rep points, or you make it so that it is not anonymous any longer. All it does is promote harsh and distasteful comments and allow the ignorant party to remain anonymous. That promotes abuse, which is definitely not conductive to a christian website such as this. I strongly urge you do something about it, because frankly, I cannot really understand the mindset of keeping it anonymous whatsoever. What did you all expect would happen when you made it that way? I don't understand. People with positive feedback always give their name, while people with very negative feedback do not.
If you want regular forum goers like me to completely stop posting based on these overly ignorant and harsh "anonymous" negative rep comments, then please keep it the way it is. If you want actual transparency within the system, then at least make it so you can see who the poster was, because I find it wrong to be able to abuse a forum goer with distasteful language, feedback, and spitefulness with anonymitity. I understand that perhaps, you were hoping to avoid abuse from the receiver of these comments toward the negative rep posters, but it is working in the opposite form.
If you made it transparent so that everyone could see who gave you the positive/negative feedback, then I believe it would stop these very bitter and angry people from posting such harsh things within their safe haven of anonymidity. Overtly harsh comments would cease to happen, and the abuse would be solved. I have NEVER received such harsh things in any actual POST in the forums, where everyone can see what was written and who the author was, and yet in the anonymous form, it runs rampant.
Please change the system, or risk losing a lot of your current forum members.
Thanks, and God bless
DABEARS85