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@Velocio
If all the +1/-1 were moved to the posts themselves, and that you saw at the bottom of a post a bit that said:
This post was liked by: Tom, Dick, Harry and 39 others
and was disliked by: Alice, Bob, Charlie and 2 others
Then there would be upsides to this...
People could see what type of post was liked by the community and try to contribute posts of that quality. Likewise, people could see what not to do by what does not meet the approval.
It could help a lot more in that regard, but it the downsides would be that it might act to only make those types of contributions be made. The circle-jerk metaphor made real. And that really would be a bad thing with regards to the bullying and mob culture, but then to some extent those people already use rep as it stands in that regard.
All of this is obsessing over the way LFGSS uses rep. The vast majority of forums actually use a public karma score and public green pips, public thanks on posts, etc.
The one thing I've always said about Microcosm is that it would be a new form of community software and not just another copying of existing forum. It should be the right thing for now and not just another echo of the past.
So whatever we build into it goes through this process of asking what we're trying to achieve, how it should work, what it does for different types of community, etc.
The hacks on vBulletin and LFGSS don't fit that at all. If there is a need we're missing I'd rather understand those than cargo cult a fix without knowing why we're doing it.