[Mithalwen]

I do know that if you delete a post you keep the rep whether good or bad. I once posted something, received a pm that seem to "blast" it and was shattered enough to delete it almost immediately. However someone else seized that brief window of opportunity to positively rep it... and so I felt a fraud for having got points on something I hadn't been brave enough to keep on the forum. Perhaps we should have an "honesty box" to return points we feel we have got in such circumstances....... On the other hand, I once got neg rep for a post which on second looks was a complete non-sequitur - I think I had replied to the wrong forum in error - and in my shame I deleted it (obviously it didn't spoil the flow of the thread). And the neg rep stayed too.

So I guess once you have got it, you keep it ... but I may be quite wrong....