Originally Posted by
penagate
The argument in favour of the reputation system is that it makes it "easy" to identify whether or not someone's response is likely to be correct and of value or not... in theory.
For example, if I joined this forum, asked a question, and got several responses from new members and one from RhinoBull, I would treat the response from Rhino as most likely to be the correct one, based on his reputation. If I received a response from someone in the red, I would be more inclined to disregard it.