I'd like to add something, if I may, and forgive me if it has been said already on one of these threads. I looked at a couple of the threads on this topic and didn't see it mentioned.
I think the thread rating feature is fine as long as it is NOT anonymous. I.e., any user or guest should be able to click on any thread rating and see a list of exactly who gave the thread what rating.
Then if there truly are gangbangers (

not my term, and I'm not expressing an opinion one way or another on whether there are or are not), it would be pretty easy for anyone to detect this.
So my question is, would such a feature be technically feasible in vBulletin, and without consuming excessive resources?