ok...I'm going to do something I try to do very rarely in the public sections....and that's rant a bit.
This reputation system was supposed to be something fun. Almost immediately, I got hammered about it. Something about it always tended to piss off someone. Cowards hid their cracks behind the anonymity it allowed, people used it as a PM system, others used it to take shots at the couple of folks they didn't like, and would boost people who hadn't signed on in months, just so they could take another crack at someone again.
Every last bleeding attempt to right things has been met with pms, public complaints, and phone calls about the damn thing, this last time included. I've had in a few cases hour long conversations on the so called "integrity" of the system, why it's "so important", why it shouldn't have been reset, etc.
Hour long phone calls, about a message board feature.
I want to know something here....for those folks who really really are so pissed off about this reset and the changes, and the loss of those damn stars.
Do you have your kindergarden finger paintings with the gold star hanging on your wall?
How about 1st grade when you got the red sticker?
Your grade school diploma?
2nd year High School report card?
Ever convert your paycheck into Yen or Lira, declare yourself a Millionaire, put on a bathrobe, grab a bubble pipe and start calling your friends "old man" and mention you were off to the "club"?
Is your LaserTag score sheet laminated and hanging on the wall above your kids pictures?
Sheesh.
Look, lose the points, the dots, the stars, the fancy badges.....
Are any of you any less of a person? Do you honestly think that the people who've been here and come up with you are suddenly going to look at you and go "Gee, Charlie doesn't have his gold star anymore. He must suck now so I can't talk to him or invite him over for tea and beatings."?
You really think that you've got nothing left to give, to offer, to say?
Are you dead? Been decapitated? Gotten a lobotomy in your spare time?
Wake up, you're all better than that.
As to the post count, it's another meaningless number. All it says is, so-n-so made "X" posts. It says nothing about the quality of those posts.
10,000 posts saying "I agree" or "bump" or "anything new here" or "

" don't mean a damned thing. There's no quality to them, they're fluff.
I'll take 100 posts on a technique, or history, or seminar reviews, or arguing over who shot first Han or Greedo over 10,000 "bump"'s.
Those are the guys and gals -I- rep.
You want to see folks really cry and raise a huge public stink?
I can un-count all posts made in non-art sections.
No points for staff posts in the staff areas.
No points for the Study
...or the Locker Room......or the B&G.
Want to see counts drop in half, like a rock on a Gas Giant?
And an outcry so large, you'd think I was driving around the country doing obscene things to cattle?
But, I won't. I changed it to count everything so that people would know how active they'd been, and trusted the rep system, report system, peer pressure and such would take care of the quality side of things. We funneled certain types of conversation into certain areas, so those who are more social than scholastic can enjoy the site, and steered the art sections so that they'd be more scholastic than casual conversation. We've put in tons of tweaks, toys, etc.
But, if it's really that important that you can rep someone and give them 10 gold stars in 1 shot then I'll reset the system so that everyone hits for 100,000,000 points at a time. When Max-Int on the server's hit, you can brag about having 10ex9999 reputation, and 10 pages of gold stars between each post.
It'll be worth as much as that coupon from McDonalds, but it'll be a big number with lots of stars and look impressive.
See, I'm tired of it all. The complaints, the complaints about the complaints, the people who I otherwise respect and in many cases admire, getting so bent out of shape over this whole mess, from all sides of the argument. I'm tired of it all, and getting too old for this stuff anymore.
It's reset.
You're all the same people now as you were then.
The old records are archived so for those it matters to, they can refer to it.
If the award system I'm looking at works as indicated, the top 100 will get something, unless they've told me not to list them.
The playing field's level, and those who had the points before are already picking em up again, like I expected.
Old comments are archived.
What more can I do?