Alternaive to Real ID - Reputation system.

The internet is currently up in arms over the Real ID system. People are afraid that old enemies may get a hold of personal information and decide to exact revenge for past transgressions, while others are welcoming the idea as a means to stem the tide of trolling and flaming on the official forums.

Now I'm not going to argue the pros and cons of the system here, as there are already hundreds of threads doing so already and I do not wish to add more fuel to the fire.

So instead I'm going to propose an alternative system to the Real ID system that will keep our identities safe and allow the community to micro manage itself to clean up some of the vile bile left over after trolls and flamers post.

A simple reputation system linked to a ranking system is all that is needed!

"How would this work?" I hear some of you ask? Quite simply.

Everytime you post a small set of scales will appear next to the reply button. Clicking this will give users the option to click on either a +rep or -rep button to either add to or subtract from a users reputation.

Each user would start off with 100 reputation and everytime somebody gives rep it adds 5 reputation to a user. Everytime somebody subtracts from a users reputation it removes 1 point.

A plus reputation could result in special forum titles or ingame titles, vanity pets and other menial things, while negative rep will result in suspenions. The users reputation would be displayed under their character name and would be tied to their account and not each individual character.

For negative rep and suspensions - bans.

It would start off small and insignificant. If a person reaches -100 rep they would receive a small 12 hour ban from the forums. If it reaches -200 it would result in a 24 hour ban. -300 a 36 hour ban. These bans would continue to add in the the fashion shown until a certain limit is reached which could result in a permanant forum ban.

"But could this system not be abused?"

Yes, it possible could be abused. Several restrictions could be put in place though in order to stop people from abusing it, much like the time limit for us to post with, a time limit between reputations given out could be implemented. Maybe you can only give out both a +reputation and a -reputation once every half an hour, and you could not vote for the same person multiple times but instead must vote for another 4 to 5 people before you can vote for the same person again?

Simple things for simple answers.

Like I said. This is just a small suggestion that popped into my head while posting in another thread. If you like the idea of reputation instead of real names then please feel free to comment. If you can see a simple flaw in the system then please feel free to comment on it and on how it could be improved.