Hopefully, they'll fix it before it's been abused to the point of no return.

I think it already has been in one case...

I think they only need to fix the negative side, so that no one can seriously lower someone's rep total by giving -rep to many of their posts.
If they decrease the increase in one's total when someone gives them +rep, it will be virtually impossible to gain rep points, because, as my earlier (beta-days) observations suggest, not many a user even bothers giving +rep to quality posts (mostly, probably, we regulars do). Of course, you can still get points from solving problems, but there are two problems with that. (Hm, ironic, isn't it?)
1)Last time I solved a problem, I got 0 points for it, and Namur also reported such a case, and I don't know if it's fixed.
2)One can be a worthy member of the community even without answering questions.
Maybe they should implement a system that gives +1/-1 rep point every time someone gives +/- rep to a user, but only allows anyone to give any kind of rep to the same other user if he/she gave out +/- rep to a specific number of yet other users?

1 - I think that bug has probably been fixed as I did get 5 rep for solving a topic after that bug had been reported. Unless of course, the bug is intermittent =/

2 - Good point. However, one person adding/taking rep for all the posts of another user should not have the effect it's having right now.

I guess it would be better if taking rep from a user required a minimum of X users to mark down a specific post, while plus rep could be handled in a manner that a single user only actually effects the rep of another user once in Y time limit.

That might be one way of ensuring it's slightly easier to get rep, but harder to lose it simply because you pissed off one person.

For reference, the Steam forum reputation system only allows admins to reward negative rep (while moderators can wipe rep to 0). Normal users can reward X amount of rep 5 times within a 24 hour period. Each of those 5 times is also on it's own 24 hour timer.

The amount of rep rewarded is apparently worked out as follows:
1 rep point for the first 50 posts (those with less posts cannot alter someone else's reputation)
1 rep for every 1000 posts
1 rep for every year you have been registered on the forums
1 rep for every 100 rep that has been rewarded to you
With a cap of 60 rep maximum.

I really doubt we need anything so convoluted here, but the system certainly does need some tweaking or fixing.

That would be a good idea, here's to hoping they will consider it.

Agree.