The reputation system is meant to be a subjective scale of what other people in the community think of you. If other people think less of you because you help people who don't use code tags and they think that people doing that is a bad thing, then they reserve the right to that opinion. That is something that contributes to the way the rest of the community perceives you and therefore your reputation amongst your peers in the community ... the entire definition of the word "reputation". Members reserve the right to give positive or negative reputation to any member for any reason. Reputation is meant to be a subjective scale of what other people think of you and we all form our own opinions of other people for lots of different reasons.

That aside, the actual reputation comments ARE upheld to the exact same standards as forum posts. If something would violate the Keep It Pleasant rule if it were posted in the forums then it violates the same rule if posted as a reputation comment, and is equally subject to infractions and infraction warnings. Additionally, the same bad words filter in place within forum posts will be put in place for reputation comments as well (feature coming VERY soon).

Just to clarify negative rep was not the problem ,but the flithy comments which came as part of it was of very bad taste.

Yes, to clarify:

Giving reputation is a personal thing, and the management will not step in and say 'you should not have neg repped that person' for that very reason.

Abiding by the rules is a site-wide requirement, so if you are rude and offensive in your blog or even in a reputation comment then you will be warned and/or infracted and you could end up banned if you do not heed those warnings.

The bad words filter now works on the reputation system.

One of the nicest things I have enjoyed about Daniweb is the pleasant way in which people write to each other. I have seen, and abandoned, other sites where those who wrote thought that it's "cute" to express themselves with a foul pen. In my humble opinion, those who can't say what has to be said in a civilized manner should quickly be penalized ar even dumped. Negativism can be infectious and it would be a shame to ruin such a wonderful and positive meeting point for those interested in all facets of computers.
Specifically to the point--one can speak negatively about someone without being abusive. It's healthier for everyone that way.

efmesch...welcome aboard & good points!

>one can speak negatively about someone without being abusive.
The problem is that "abusive" is a very subjective description. I don't consider my behavior abusive, but I'm reasonably sure that you would. Would you have me leave Daniweb just because I don't fit your definition of pleasant? Would you feel the same way if I explained my reasons for presenting myself the way that I do and they made perfect sense? There's more to the equation than simply being nice or not nice.

In fact, when it comes to highly technical forums (the software development forums, for example) the general guideline is that if the forum forces everyone to be nice, highly qualified experts will be conspicuously absent. The trick is to find a forum with a happy medium where the rules allow experts to be themselves, but are still strict enough to satisfy the "keep it pleasant" folks. I believe that Daniweb is such a place.

I can still see the F word in the reputation for this post

> I can still see the F word in the reputation for this post
But are you wearing the Daniweb(TM) specially patented bad word filter glasses? I think not!

> Is it acceptable that people give negative rep with 'flithy' abusive words?
I'm not so sure what you mean by the word flithy? Is it a cross between the words 'filthy' and 'fluffly?' It sounds like a compliment to me?

Oh damn Dani didn't give me any. And I don't wanna steal yours.