[Mistwraith]

Well the initial ratings thing was an idea to make the reader of the post see what others thought of the posters ideas in general, it has no effect on your ability to post and as such has failed miserably, some dont give a reason, sometimes your spelling and grammer will get you a neg rep and most of the time, its not signed by the person doing it.

Most of us dont even care what our reps are, or what effect an answer has on that rep, there are those of course that have a long line of red and are proud because they know they have upset people to the point of them actually making a neg rep.
Sometimes the opposite will happen and someone will give you a pos rep for your giving a post they found really funny or helpfull.

editted: used a wrong word