It's a perfect reason for negative rep. This is a perfect example of the hypocritical attitude some people display for the system. So do you think people should not be allowed to give positive rep for posts that are only opinion? Heck, I just checked out your rep points and noticed you got a few positive's for opinion posts...should I remove those for you?
There is more than enough discussion on this topic with more than enough replies from the mods to explain to you why the reps system is the way it is and our philosophy on what it should be use for.
I can see the hypocrisy of it, but just imagine if we all gave negative rep for every comment we read that we don't agree with. I think things would get ugly pretty fast. Then you might consider it a matter of degree. But then again everyone's line of how much they agree or disagree enough to validate a rep one way or another is different, so some may get upset over it.
At first, I thought the purpose of the positive rep system was for instances when one has helped another with a technical or informational issues, not for opinions. I thought a lot of positive rep was an example of one's Apple knowledge and ability. On the flip side, I thought negative rep was to keep people in line and mature by dinging people for making negative personal attacks, immature comments and baseless claims; basically to keep the forum civil in a time when people tend to be more ugly, cruel and rude when they can hide behind their keyboard. (see comments on Youtube as an example) I used to judge information I got by a person's rep, but since one can build rep just by saying what someone else likes to hear or just "forum friends", I suppose it's not the best way to judge what someone tells you from a technical standpoint.
At first, I didn't hand out much rep and when I got negative reps for opinions I was pretty mad under this assumption. I personally feel my assumption of how the system should work is much more appropriate because, awarding like-mindedness and punishing differing ideas feels like an attack on one's freedom of speech and will hinder people from speaking how they feel out of fear it will bring a negative response that tarnishes their reputation.
Just one person's humble opinion.
