[quote=@Shienvien]
[quote]an optional rating system[/quote] As long as there is no button for me to hide those fields on my profile so that neither I myself nor any other user can see them, it is [i][b]NOT[/b][/i] optional. It is very much completely obligatory. It was thrown at us without warning, it takes up more than half of the general info section of our profiles, and there is [i]no way [/i] for us to opt out of that.

Not having any popularity systems (and that's what it [i]inevitably[/i] is and will always be, as such is human nature) was one of the things I honestly used to like about RPG... I kind of doubt it would be completely purged (which I'd personally prefer) now that it has been regrettably already been implemented, but I'd [b][i]minimally[/i][/b] necessitate a way for users to hide the statistics panel on their [i]profiles[/i] from anyone's viewing. 

If no one else makes it an option before, I might do so myself, should I find the time.

Edit: Tags still eat spaces. Words still get randomly glued together due to that.
[/quote]

And while your personal frustration is certainly good feedback, this has been discussed before. All these salient points were brought up before to Mahz, and he thought it was inconsequential. I don't agree with the decision, but it's made. Continuing to rant about it is just going to sour relations and that's not good for anyone. 

So chill. Seriously. 

Mahz knows some people hate the system. Mahz knows some people love the system. It's his choice whether to abide by the haters or lovers. We can hope that some steps are made to alleviate any pain of the those who disagree with the rating system if he chooses to maintain it. But this discussion has gone on for three pages now, and the arguments have repeated themselves one after another. After the first page, we lost pretty much all rational argument for it, and it's pretty much turned into a circlejerk of 'I hate this idea'. 

I'm pretty sure Mahz has heard you all loud and clear. So let's let him make up his mind and move on to other things. Like dancing bananas, or why people still can't figure out what the link/go to last post button is.