It sounds like the real problem is people don't know how to discuss and disagree with others. People should be able to disagree without it having a negative impact. It limits a lot of creative thought if people only feel it is ok to be nice and agree with everyone. Disagreeing is not the same as putting someone down for their opinion and calling them stupid. That is called insulting someone, not disagreeing. Some people seem to take disagreement as the same as an insult which is too bad for them. Restrictions on insulting, name calling and etc is a good thing (as people withdraw from being attacked which limits creative thought) but a system which punishes people in perpetuity for disagreeing with someone and backs their disagreement with reasonable arguments (like in any good debate) has a problem.
That said, we also have a problem because we are an international community, it is hard to be sensitive to all cultures. A lot of cultures have limits on how directly disagreement can be expressed without insulting people to which is added the burden of translating machines. I think it should be built into the system that we be fairly forgiving. Either the negative rating should be removed or negative ratings should fall off after a certain timeframe between 3-6 months. A short timeframe seems reasonable given the transitory natures of most posters although a core seems to be longterm.
At the same time, the moderators can stay on top of situations if someone is directly insulting people by calling them idiots personally, they can be warned and if they continue to do it, be removed for a specified time (basically timeouts because people can learn and change negative behaviors). Calling someone stupid and then adding a
or a LOL is still an insult. Implying someone is uneducated in kittycats becuase they don't understand the breeding stats/system because they are new is not the same as calling a person stupid. It can just be a lengthy explanation on the system on why something can or cannot happen with the intent to educate. I don't see many people directly insulting other people although I do see people getting upset that someone said their opinion is wrong in a direct vehement manner with a direct explanation of why they are wrong. If a person can't allow other people to disagree without getting upset, they don't belong on a forum either. What they really want is just to talk to their friends who all agree with them. Which is sweet but sometimes we need spice or we stagnant and don't learn or create anything new (like the folks who all agreed the world was flat).
So slinging sugar, salt and spice ok; mud not ok. Forgiveness (negative ratings rolling off) but also boundaries (timeouts). It's a balancing act. that's my two cents. (or $L2 in this economy).
