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You may have noticed that the skill rating is gone.

After much discussion amongst the moderation team, we decided that unfortunately the skill system was making far more work for the moderation team than was reasonable.

The positive feedback to users who contribute a lot to the forum is great, but the negative feedback to users really wasn't having much of an effect, and the extra moderation time to try and address the complaints that would come from some users whenever they received a negative skill rating was too much.

So for now it's gone. The social networking feature of the new software may replace some of that; add people that you like to your friends list, and maybe we can see if we can add an indication on each post that will display if that poster is on your friends list, then you can decide who gets more of your attention.

Keep reporting posts, we'll address the negative ones from a moderation point of view, and I'm looking for something to highlight or reward good posts in the software.

I can't decide if I should keep this open or not.. I guess I'll leave it open, you can discuss the system objectively or discuss ideas for something similar, or discuss what the goals of such a system should even be. But please don't use this thread to discuss your grievances with the skill system, we are well aware of its shortcomings, or a particular skill.