Ability to rate up for everyoneFollow

I propose the ability for EVERYONE to be able to positively rate up other posters.

The current system has always been a bit skewed. You need x amount of posts and y amount of rating on said posts to be able to participate in an essential part of the site's moderation. I get why it was originally done this way, but I also get why some posters might feel... sidestepped.

I was sub-scholar for the first 10,000 posts due to some pretty intense karma camping. I only gained the ability to rate others because some poor soul went through my posting history and rated most of my posts back up.

The system encourages posters to post what the veteran audience wants them to post, not what they really want to post. Those who do the latter are rated down and are forever excluded from affecting the curve.

I may not agree with everything Alma says, but I don't think he/she should be excluded from participating in the circle jerks.

Of course, I'm biased, because I think the system is borderline censorship. The spammers get reported, anyway, and the karma system primarily acts as an outlet for people's frustrations. It's akin to an anonymous "tee hee, I think you're a d!ck" eCard.

If you mean "being myself", then yes, I was doing it on purpose. I wasn't intentionally trying to get rated down, I just wasn't going to curve my opinion out of fear of being rated down. My surprise was that it took as long as it did, given my opposition. The point being, me being rated down, shouldn't affect my ability to rate others (at least in a positive way).

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