@aznstoner: This may be one opinion amongst the masses, but it's an opinion nevertheless. Most newcomers, and especially member lurkers/leechers don't even know or bother with rep system. Why? Because they don't have the posts to +/- rep people in the first place, and even if they did, they don't bother to figure it out. I didn't figure it out till around 50 or so odd posts, and someone explained it to me I believe. As I said before, newcomers come into FAKKU mainly looking for material to download, and while the forums are there for them to interact with the community, it's their choice to participate - we can't force them. And if they join, more often than not they are mostly unaware of the rules, unaware of the system. Even I took some time getting used to the system - I probably didn't understand the system like the back of my palm until I hit Elite status. Then I could say I knew nearly most functions and rules on FAKKU enough to never worry again. (This supports my argument for a clear and cut page of rules/FAQs) I think that elitism translates into seniority, and while I may have a rep of 23, I have helped countless others without ever asking for rep, and never get it. So sometimes I think rep isn't even the best way to judge a person's worth. In fact, I have never uploaded a single thing to this website, and I'm proud of my hard earned rep from posting alone. There are people here I respect with less rep than others, so that goes to show that the rep system isn't all as cracked up as it's supposed to be.
Frankly, I don't think people post with the intention of getting rep. I certainly don't, and it doesn't keep me from arguing with others. If I don't like your attitude or I don't agree with your position or you've done something wrong, I'll tell you straight up, no games. Sure, I might write a diatribe or rant or a dissertation to get my point across, but that's all it is, and the rep that follows depends on other peoples' reactions. The key thing is other peoples' reactions, and one person won't have the same reaction like another, so you never know who'll give you the rep, so don't bother to try and figure it out. I like discussing things here, and I don't believe that rep gets in the way of discussion, leastwise I've never seen something along the lines of this: "I have higher rep than you, so shut up you've got no place or say in this." I have never seen anyone use their rep as a bludgeoning tool on others, which is why I believe that elitism isn't a big issue since it's really related to seniority/frequency anyways.
As for a better system, I don't think one exists. I've already expressed my disapproval of the rep system (since this is the first site I've been on that uses it) because I honestly think it's just ballast - useless. The only way I can see it improved is like what eqym suggested, there's no de-repping of others so that we wouldn't worry about rep-logs or rep wars and whatnot. Other than that, I would rather scrap the entire rep system, but it's here to stay with the admins having no intention of providing a rep log for the users. I figure that people with higher reps can take advantage of the rep by giving themselves a little omake, just a little title that describes them underneath their FAKKU status. It's really not a special privilege because like I said, most people aren't aware of the rep system, and if they do, they don't bother with it or wonder about it. So yeah.
Btw, it's spelled suggestion. Some people might need to go back to preschool. (Or in FPOD's case, a momentary passing of dyslexia by transposing the two vowels.)