On my PM page, why do I have a negative rep? What am I doing wrong or who is causing this? Can I get a list of any complaints that caused this rating and how does onw respond?

 

It's an anonymous system so really is meaningless. It is from the shown on the left. When someone clicks either one it either gives you a +1 or -1 reputation. Since it is anonymous the whole system is pointless but if there is a ton of neg reps or positives it should give you an idea about the user.

Just gave you a thumb up to help out haha.

 

It's a lot harder to state an opinion (like in S2000 talk or Car Talk) without offending someone these days and earning some negative reputation. It seems like if you choose to disagree with someone's opinion, you can expect negative reputation to come in.

 

^Yup very true. Makes people just not even post replies a lot of the time unfortunately.

 

then how is this helpful to anyone? why add it then?

 

It would be great if there was a reputation system like most forums that is not anonymous. Where they have to leave a note with the feedback, good or bad. That would actually help people get an idea of the user better. Or even just for buyer/sellers transactions.
Last time I asked this question in this same forum and got -5 reputation for asking a question lol.
The system definitely does not work at all though. In many cases 1 person can and has neg repped people 5 times a day every day since they don't like them.

 

On a local forum, we have a "Thanks" and "Fail" button, if you click either, your name appears at the bottom of the post allowing everyone to see if you Thanked or Failed someone. you also have the ability to remove your thank and fail if you should see fit

 

I agree. The reputation system should not be anonymous. Or it should only be allowed in some forums like the Classifieds forum. It may also not be very newbie friendly in case the newbie is not familiar with the certain things that are frowned upon on S2ki (AP1 vs AP2 debates, etc.) Instead, the newbie gets a ton of negative reputation and the following post with a witty "use the search" response gets +10 reputation.

I always enjoyed S2ki's car talk (along with some of my other friends who do not own S2k's but enjoy frequenting that forum), but the reputation system seems to be holding back a lot of potential discussions. Instead of promoting intelligent debates, I'm sure there are a few people who are afraid to post their opinions and thoughts because they will be bombarded with negative reputation (which does matter to an extent when selling / buying in the marketplace.) Forums such as Car talk and S2000 Talk were supposed to be for discussions instead of playing favorites and winning a popularity contest.

 

^ everything is about playing favorites and winning a popularity contest, that is how the world works. If reputation was based on merit the world would make sense, the best candidate would always get the job, criminals would go to jail and Donald Trump wouldn't have a TV show.

To say that those with negative rep don't deserve it is to say those who have a positive rep don't. It IS a popularity contest so if you've got a very low rep then maybe you should look at how people respond to you rather than blaming people for responding. People give rep for a reason and while there may be a lot of noise in the middle there is a lot of clarity around the edges.

It's not my fault that some people just aren't liked that much and hiding that doesn't make them more likable. The only one who can make someone less repulsive is themselves. Change your attitude and your tone and people will respond to you differently. I'm not going to apologize for anyone finding out that they aren't as awesome as they think they are. Fix your rep by fixing your personality.

Jus sayin...

 

So, you agree that an unpopular opinion (one that is biased against the S2000) deserves to get voted down? You didn't address the fact that there will be people who have different opinions. Just because someone is into the "hellaflush" scene and posts up pictures of his car does not mean he deserves to get bombarded with negative reputation. The same goes for someone who says "I like my AP1 more than the AP2." I have seen all these types of comments receive negative reputation and the poster was just giving an honest opinion, not trolling or throwing out a terrible personality.

Instead of promoting discussion and (intelligent) debates, we went backwards.