:-) I'm not taking offense, I'm trying to learn the system.

And yes, I do care that you're putting effort into this as well -- in fact, I greatly appreciate it.

However, effort should account for something (and in your case, I do feel that you are appreciating my effort by continuing the conversation -- thank you!).

On the other hand, there is clearly a problem with the reputation system when my 5 reputation can be trashed to a -6 with a single post.

Yes, I too apparently inadvertently committed a cardinal sin (vote-buying -- even though @smooth didn't object when a bunch of his other reputation-saving projects did it -- which is where I got the idea). The good news is that Mark keeps trying to convince me that we (and the community) will come out of this better than if this hadn't happened so it'll all be worthwhile in the long run . . . .