I welcome the new addition of user names next to the reputation marks. It was also interesting to see a certain Omni Boycotter's handle among those who added/subtracted my reputations; I guess the boycotter still finds OMNI too attractive to stay away.

I am one of those who usually go ahead and post a reply if I have something to say to a topic. Therefore, when I click that approve/disapprove button, I don't really have anything to add there. I tend to use it like an agree/disagree button. I guess this reputation feature is something new and will evolve in time. I would actually recommend that Randy reset all the reputations after a month or two, so that we can get out of this trial and error period and start fresh when we have acquired better knowledge and understanding on how best to use reputations.

Perish the thought!

Actually, you were perhaps using it the way it was designed, to express "approval" or "disapproval" of a given post.

However, given some of the fragile egos here (not exempting myself) and competitive personalities (ditto), the approvals seem to have evolved into an approval (or disapproval, for the vindictive in our midst) of a philosophy, ideology, or individual, rather than the mere post.

So keep in mind, one can always select the "approval" button whilst registering disagreement in the "comments" field.

As far as I know, the boycotter has posted publicly several times that he still reads Omni -- he simply refuses to post there.

That should be cleared up now, see
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=316350

So over the last two days I've been getting back into the habit of posting after taking about 5 weeks off from FT. I'm still finding my way around all of the new features and I've now discovered REPUTATION POINTS. This has got to be the dumbest thing ever. It's one thing to have a reputation score on eBay (which I use) because that is based on how you handle a transaction. But to have a FT reputation score based on your opinion on a particular subject is ridiculous. Basically this means if I disagree with someone or post an opinion in OMNI or United that others don't like - I get dinged?

So now you're not graded on whether or not you're using logic in a post, but your "reputation" is based on whether or not people like your opinion? Anyway...

Ken, you can ding someone for any reason: Not liking his opinion on that one post, not liking his opinions in general, not liking his writing style, not liking his logic, or not even liking his user name.

Obviously, this means that the whole reputation game can add a little spice but certainly should not be taken seriously.

In your particular case, I generally agree with what you are saying and like your writing style but am very tempted to start dinging you for not coming to the Meet.