Although I am definitely not a fan of negging just because you don't like a person, I think that the APs will balance out in the end for the most part. I agree with antihaxor about keeping your posts up to par. This will help keep the exceptions from hurting your postive point count too adversely. As for the cliques getting together and giving each other positives undeservingly and "ganging up" on those they don't like, that is really immature. I would hope that we have all reached a maturity level where this becomes at the very most an exception (there are bad apples in every bunch). I am sure that if that was noticed and reported to the appropriate party, it would be dealt with in a swift manner.