I believe that is precisely what Shawn has done but making a "-1 point penalty" for giving red rep. Seems to have worked spectacularly well in some cases.
I make my way very far to this forum after people at my country, Malaysia rep me easily at the largest IT forum in my county, seems they are very low on knowledge but more to fun fun fun .. hmm no wonder why teenagers around like me in my country, mostly dont know the diff between linux and windows, even they own themself a poweful pc, all for gaming purpose ..
they're not sick of the rep itself, they're sick of the xenophobic and condescending attitudes-- as they should be. I'm usually pretty torn on the idea of rep, but Colleen pretty much summed up how I feel about it at the moment, to be quite honest.
Try to post about adsense and see what they will say, on Malaysian forums, most of them will rep you easily, they would say all that "nonsense!"..
ignore them. bet my horse they're not earning four-figures from adsense either. malaysians, what can you expect? demonstrate that you know more than they do and they'll try all shits to discredit you.
You are absolutely right on this. It is the attitude and the ways newbies were treated. Colleen you are the queen