Apologies for coming into this late, but I haven't been around much lately. Lots o'stuff keeping me tied up these days.

Originally posted here by powertoad5000
I agree with what souleman said that if all ap's are tagged then people will probably feel more inclined to give greens to those that give them greens, which encourages alliance-type behaviour. I think that maybe tagging all negs is the best way to go and then giving people the option of whether or not they want to tag their greens.
I have to disagree with my two esteemed colleagues on this one. (Crap, I sound like a Senator or something....) I don't see this issue as anything different than what has already been happening here for a long time now. I think it's safe to say that the majority of users here - probably a vast majority, but I can't prove that - already sign their positives and leave the negs anonymous. At least that's what my AP Center reflects most of the time. I can't think of any reason to do that except that people are fishing around for some reciprocation. All we would be doing is automating what people are already doing anyway.

I know I have engaged in this practice before, but with a couple of exceptions, I stopped signing all my assignments quite some time ago because I realized it was hypocritical. I'm of the opinion that if we're going to put names, let's put names. And if they're going to be anonymous, they need to all be anonymous. Either way is fine with me, but let's pick a standard and stick to it.

My only concern is that newbies and juniors will be afraid to neg anyone with 11 dots showing, no matter how justified, for fear of retribution. I think that's a very real problem with this new system, but I don't know that it's any worse than the problems we have now, either. I guess it's a case of "pick your poison."

Just as a general statement of principle that has little bearing on the topic at hand, I have long been a defender of the current AP system on the grounds that, for all its flaws, it's an accurate reflection of the world we live in. Life is often unfair, and there will always be people who abuse the system (whatever "the system" may be). It's human nature. In many cases those people will hide behind positions of power or otherwise be unaccountable for their actions, and you just have to roll with the punches and go on. I don't see life at AO as being any different than real life. I am not saying that nothing should be done about the alliance problem, just that it's a fact of life.

All that being said, I'm not opposed to trying something new, so let's see what happens.