Entropy: Thats a good solution to the problems with the "free forum." but wouldn't it just be easier if you had a controversial post, to sign out, then post it as a guest, rather than give more work to the already busy moderators of AO? (unless of course they're not busy and want more work )

Also, in addition to the "assign towards even" maybe the ppl whose votes are worth say, 8 APs could choose a number to assign up to the total, either positive or negative. That way, they could gauge their response based on the need.
My $0.02...