I hear what you're saying, but I don't see what's the point.
There is a reason why some members get flamed. And that's not peer pressure or whatever. It's because they spam.
I see a new tendency that started after one of the rants a few months ago:
* New member spams.
* New member gets a negative rep saying he spams and should read the rules.
* Old member reps the new member saying all the people who gave a neg to the new member are idiots and they should remember when they first joined, blah, blah...
Basically, people are forgetting something: You don't rep people because of pity or because when you first joined you spammed like crazy and now you see the errors of your ways and feel that this new member deserves something you didn't have back then.
You're basically doing all the contrary to the
Different opinion != Wrong opinion
thing you preach.
If 15 people and an admin think a user is spamming, it tells you something. It doesn't mean peer pressure.
You get tired of telling the same person over and over again to read the rules, stop double posting, stop trying to get your post count to increase by making pointless or repeated threads outside of T&T, stop insulting others in public or in PMs, etc.
Then someone comes along and reps the guy with a + and says: "aww, you were noobs too!
"
That's something that irks me. It's like it doesn't matter anymore that you're trying to point people into the right direction.
I think THAT'S what's actually degrading this forum. Giving spammers a pat on the back every time someone's trying to make them stop.
So, go ahead, mask it with peer pressure, evil reppers or "we were noobs too", but I think you bring this upon yourselves.
Btw, I was a noob too. But I never had to be told twice to read the rules.
/ 
