Actually I should correct myself I believe it is capped at 4 not 5. but it still shows up as 3. My apologies for the error, posting at 3am does not make cogent statements at times.
Look at us man, we have no clue what is going on. According to Gamedev.net you have a good reputation and my reputation equals to Ivan the Terrible but we don't know what is going on here
Mostly I don't know because I don't truly pay attention to the ins and outs of the rep system. Sure, I have opinions, and absolutely if I think something shonky has happened to my rep I will raise it with a mod. But at the end of the day my primary goal is to provide others with what little I know in terms of knowledge and advice whilst sucking the thoughts of others on this website for my own needs and interests. I take an active part in pointing out bugs where I see them (as I believe this is a website that tries very hard to make itself a good site) but sometimes I can miss the obvious ones such as Cornstalks picked up on. If you look at the breakdown of my rep you will find that a large chunk of it is not related to scholar related activities but rather participation and moderation (i.e. reporting threads that need to be moved to a more appropriate forum). Also you will find that the majority of my posts are within the creative forums of design and writing (far more accepting of opinions) followed mostly by business and law (far less accepting of opinions). My one technical post has a downvote on it.
I can understand your frustration at being downchecked. No one likes to be downchecked except trolls and I don't think of you as a troll but simply as a person who has walked into a glass door and realised after the fact that the door was closed. My only advice is relax, don't take it too seriously, chase up a mod if you believe that last set of downchecks was not appropriate (chances are given this thread one of them will check anyway). Mostly however,
don't wake up the natives.
According to Gamedev.net you have a good reputation and my reputation equals to Ivan the Terrible
Trust me on this simple fact -- you are nowhere near the most downvoted person on this site in recent times on a scale of 100's. Just focus on providing good advice and it will show through. That's all I can suggest,