Originally Posted by
Savions
it's hard to make up an opinion about this
for one i do believe most of the ppl who were infracted were aware of ''rep4rep''s happening, but i also believe this was unintentional and not an actual organized thing
also this has been going for a pretty long time now. leaving such thing unpunished for such a long time may have given many users the impression that innocent rep trading (once again not organized but simply ''hey you repped me so here's some rep'' or rep spreading) is okay. this should also taken into account when making the decision whether or not you want to punish those who have been doing this by infracting and deducting reputation by 50%
on the other hand you could also say that deduction of reputation was necessary as a lot of reputation earned can be considered fraud
overall i believe the punishment was a bit too harsh, even though i wasn't affected by any of this myself (as im not a frequent shitposter in the most comment thread)
i think a moderator making a statement would have been much better as it would also make the false impression that was created void
edit: dont get me wrong i think your complaint is valid and i think a different kind of punishment would be much more appropriate