I'm not taking either side, but quite frankly, I'd like to hear the admin's take on the situation. Simply changing the font color to [a still readable] shade of gray and rating it down to negatives isn't going to get the things to stop. I think this topic itself makes that apparent.
Why does the topic offend people? Because it's not fair to the people who didn't post in it because their karma doesn't get a boost? That's their own problem for not posting in the thread. Is it because it makes a mockery of the karma system? It abuses it? Then maybe the karma system needs some adjusting. Or simply taken away. Is it against your ToS? Make that point. It may not be the admin's responsibility to make sure all new users have read and understand the ToS, but if you truly want them to adhere to it, you're going to have to give an explanation for taking action for a violation of the ToS.
I personally don't see why the topic needs to be closed, hidden, rated down to an absurdly low negative and then have the font color in the original post changed. Especially since it's a very nice change of pace from most of the other topics around here (that manage to stay open, by the way). Looking at the linked thread, it was someone named Railus. I would very much like to hear your take on this situation. Why not explain to the people in this forum why you don't want this kind of topic? Because otherwise, you are going to have to come back into our forum many, many times to close even more.
Edited, Tue Aug 16 00:07:42 2005 by seraphimhunter