Ok, coming across a big red "demerit" thing on my profile, just turns my stomach and makes me think this place encourages cliquishness (refering to the agree/disagree thing that in my case is negative and like a big red flag as soon as I look at my "Content".).
And, actually, in my case, it just sparks a huge amount of defiance and makes me want to do bad things like deliberately be disagreeable (not nice to put me in a position where I'm tempted to sin like that ) Or worse, to cease participating at all (which may be the whole point and what some people would prefer.)
Truth is not a popularity contest. And whether a number of people agree or disagree, is usually irrelevent, and when it's relevent, they can use the reply feature to make their ideas known, rather than besmirching people with a childish rating system.
I already get the distinct feeling there's a large anti-Catholic vibe, which isn't conducive to the purpose of the site, presumably. Having demerits and other such negative assignments is not friendly, to say the least.
Just a suggestion. Get rid of the demerits.
Edited by rosc, 07 January 2013 - 08:53 PM.