EagleTed:

negative rating? If you don't like this forum, please ignore it. Obviously, it's too low-brow for you. Stick to indexes, and leave the rest of us alone.

I'm sure most people are giving negative ratings to forums and, in particular, certain forum members simply because they are spiteful losers.  They can't find a cat to kick so they come here instead.

I apparently have stalkers who just can't wait to give me a -1.  I now consider it a badge of honor, so Warren should be proud too.

To make matters worse, just look at the gutter-sniping going on with tags.  I foresee this as getting really ugly rather quickly. 

M* was told this nonsense was going to happen, but apparently, M* condones this childish behavior.  They must want to chase certain people away, as there's no other logical reason for such an arbitrary and useless rating system.

 (I'm going to give myself a -1 now.  I haven't yet polished my badge today.)

Regards,

Dave (aka -1)

Just to show how nasty I am, everybody gets a +1 for the awful traits of being forthright, honest and clear in their views.  God!  How unacceptable ;)

Why would anyone give a negative score to this forum?  bizarre...  I have a feeling we have a few folks throwing temper tantrums about the new format, like a child screaming because he cannot tie his shoes...

You're right, of course.  Why should people give this forum or any forum negative ratings, or ratings at all for that matter, IMO .  I spend most of my time at the Diehard's forum; but what I like(d) about the M* forums was it served as an umbrella for different viewpoints and approaches to investing, and you had the freedom to explore. Ratings (good or bad) are a distraction from learning through the conversations.  Why introduce petty competition and peer pressure.  I have enough decisions to make at home and work everyday, I don't want to have to spend one nanoseconed thinking about how to rate someone's post on an investment forum.  Ratings are silly and juvenile,  and I'm ignoring them.

~Satori

You are getting to the heart of it.  I have decided to give everyone I talk to a vote, but that is because its my way of rebelling.  Frankly, I find the whole thing a very bad idea.  Sometimes, we have controversies, and I like to get into that.  Sure, I am not always the most popular, but I have my say and we all learn something.  But now we just vote down / shout down the guy with the outside view?  What is accomplished with that?  READ the post, and decide if the information / author is of use by yourself. 

I think I am going to bring this up on the M*star forum.  I initially said that only individual posts should be rated.  But now I don't even like that.  What a mess this whole beauty contest has become.   

my two cents. I don't believe in giving the whole forum a bad name (bad rating) even if some posters in that particular forum are bad (not the case here anyway).

That said, for anyone going by the number of votes (for either a post, user or forum) may mean that we are missing the message that a user or a forum is carrying for all of us.

 As they say, popularity is a socially transmitted disease. ;)

 Ravi.