Tom911 is mostly correct. There were actually two rating systems, one for "Reputation" which applied to particular posts and the other for forums.

Both of these systems were badly abused by an immature group of people who used them to gang up on people they did not like.

Where he is wrong is in saying "the whole system was anonymous". That was true in the beginning but Randy then changed the system (in so far as "Reputation" was concerned) and did so retroactively. At that point, the abuse stopped.

I have absolutely no problem with the OP's suggestion as long as it is not anonymous.