You probably have a good idea what this blog post is about from the title. Your mouse might be hovering around the back button as you continue to read, compelled to do so by the mystical force which surrounds my words (). You know what this article is about.

As it so happens you are wrong. Whatever you think this blog post is about to say, you're on the wrong track. Unless, by some miracle, you have read my mind as I write this. And if that is the case, please let me know. I have need of a translator at times.

Assuming you have not read my mind (and have not been driven away by my obvious attempts to keep you reading), I will now explain what this is all about: neg rep, and the problem with how it is laid out.

The Beginning

We have to start at the beginning. When I joined this site, I was young, opinionated, and showed all the signs of becoming a first-rate online nuisance. I nearly did, until I found the Fan Fiction forum. ...