[The Barrow-Wight]

There are no winners or losers on the Downs. Reputations is not a contest, but it is a measurement of approval of and by our members. We are all living within the bounds of the same reputations system, so though some people may be uncomfortable being numerically rated against their peers, everyone is treated equally by the system.

Overall, the Reputations feature of vBulletin has been a positive influence on the Downs. Only occasionally and for very short time periods has it become the main topic of discussion, and when that happened, it subsided as quickly as it started. Most of our members have been prodded by Reputations into cleaning up their posts in both content and appearance. With such forum-wide benefits, allowing people to turn it off would skew the results and make the system inaccurate.

With that said, even if I could turn it off for specific users (I can’t), I wouldn’t. I have been quite happy with Reputations ever since we started using them, and I am sure they will continue to work well for us. I recommend that anyone who perceives the system as negative (or even oppressive?) remember again that the Downs is not a competition. It is just a place for you to read and discuss everyone's favorite topic: Middle-earth.