I've been convinced by the discussion here that I was wrong about the rep system and it could use an overhaul. It's unfortunate the way people used the AoA release to turn against each other when this was always such a close knit, trusting community.
Something like a reddit-style upvote system for quality posts would probably work for 90% of what rep is supposed to do, with perhaps a second mechanism for trades. I think the reputation for positive trade history needs to be separated out from the rest of the rep because it's clearly the most important part and we don't want to create a false sense of trustworthiness for trading to people without a good trade history.
I'm just spitballing ideas though, at the end of the day I trust the admins
.