I've been mildly amused with the competition surrounding post ratings ever since the new dailykos added this feature. And since I haven't been able to get this feature to work for me, I'm less into the game than many.
Lately, however, I've noticed the ratings system has become the focus of much divisive attention. People are apparently giving troll ratings to posts that they disagree with strongly, and from what I gather, that is not the point of the ratings system -- to express the strength of your agreement or disagreement, but to make an "objective" assessment of the quality of the post.
Besides the distraction of people bickering about who gave whom a troll rating, I think it's become a lazy way to add to the discussion because it gives the rater the sense of adding their input when he/she doesn't really add anything new to the conversation.
So, whad'ya think? Keep the rating system, can it, or reform it?