[StarManta]

But I'm worried about what the Consensus will think! ;_;

[CanRay]

Who wouldn't love my avatar of Spider Jerusalem watching TV while on Fire with the Goddamn Cat?

[beowulf_of_wa]

oh is THAT what your avatar is??!?

and here i thought it was something entirely dirtier.

[UmaroVI]

Yeah, that's pretty much why the rep system doesn't work. Using Fastjack as an example: that's only about a month's work of smiting, for someone who could smite 8 times a day at more-than-an-hour intervals; pretty trival in this age of smartphones if anyone cared. So did 195 people smite him for stuff? Or did one person with an axe to grind smite him 195 times? I don't know, so it makes caring about reputation pretty pointless.

If you could see what posts got smited/applauded, that would at least be useful. Then I could at least investigate why someone was universally loved/hated and see if it was a lot of different people applauding or smiting different posts, or a small number of people abusing the system.

[beowulf_of_wa]

am wondering if that ( ID the smited post) is possible? though i assume it would make a massive pain in the rear for someone.

[VileTerror]

I generally try to avoid these forum-politics threads, though I've been to a few communities with rep systems.  I've never seen one which can't be exploited, but I've seen a few which don't allow you to neg-rep someone without leaving a comment, which then only the rep'd individual can read.  That user could then flag such neg-rep comments as inflammatory if appropriate, and then a Moderator could view it as well, and the Mod would be able to see the source of the rep comment.
Not a perfect system, and it might be a headache and three quarters to implement here, but I just thought I'd share.  It might at least reduce any "serial smiting," especially if you make it clear that blank or nonsensical neg-rep comments aren't permitted.

On the flip-side, it didn't stop threads like this from cropping up everywhere, and people would often hi-jack threads just to bitch about some comment left in their neg-rep box.  (A counter to that might be to create a rep-specific forum, for discussing such things, but that probably also has 'Powder Keg' written all over it.)

[FastJack]

I still think the rep system works pretty well... You might get a couple where people get an axe to grind and it shoots your negatives down, but if you're contributing to a lot of conversations and people like what you're saying, the positive bear that out. I know in my case, I was averaging about 2 rep hits (either an applaud or smite) a post when the forums first started and I spent more time chatting and less time moderating. I'd like to think that it was an influencing factor of my being asked to be a moderator since it showed that not only did I interact a lot, but people were listening to me.

[Ranger]

Huh?  Did you say somethin?  Sorry I wasn't paying any attention

[Red Canti]

Complaining about smiting generally encourages people to smite you dude.

[Xzylvador]

The charisma score you attributed to yourself exceeds that of Hestaby and Lowfyr's.
If -WHEN- they find out you claim your mojo is greater than theirs, a little loss of reputation will be least of your concern.
Of course, your superb woman pleasing skill might hold off Hestaby. But Lowfyr, well... he might be a bit upset.

<-- See that blemish on my otherwise perfect score? I got that BY ACCIDENT!

[Chrona]

The charisma score you attributed to yourself exceeds that of Hestaby and Lowfyr's.
If -WHEN- they find out you claim your mojo is greater than theirs, a little loss of reputation will be least of your concern.
Of course, your superb woman pleasing skill might hold off Hestaby. But Lowfyr, well... he might be a bit upset.

<-- See that blemish on my otherwise perfect score? I got that BY ACCIDENT!

Dragons might not be the gender they appear

[Xzylvador]

... they all lay eggs, right? Even the dudes... Those things are just weird.

[VileTerror]

Well, gender is a social inference and is independent of biological sex (though there are plenty of arguable links), especially in the 6th World with all its transhumanistic splendour.  So generally, the gender a dragon (or anyone) presents as-is their gender.  Although, one needs to bear in mind a few exceptions, such as:  Identity crisis, intentional misdirection, differing understanding of cultural norms of that particular gender, comfort level, "trying to prove a point," etc.

So, based on the limited evidence presented in this thread, I would hazard that all dragons have the same sex, but different genders.
(This doesn't necessarily invalidate Chrona's statement any either.)

[Xzylvador]

Soooooooo....

Need to do something to get dragon hermaphrodite sex out of my head... Think I'm going to lurk some topics and find someone to smite.

[CanRay]

Soooooooo....

Need to do something to get dragon hermaphrodite sex out of my head... Think I'm going to lurk some topics and find someone to smite.

OK, something to get Herm Dragons out of your head?

Hutt Porn Magazines.  In 3D.