Michael Snow wrote:
I think the web-of-trust system could help check antisocial behavior without resorting to numerical ratings.
I guess I see some advantage to the numerical ratings on the other side: rather than punishing bad behavior, it could reward good behavior. Especially if it were broken down into several categories ("article quality", "social [something]", etc.), it might provide some sort of incentive. We can already see people are somewhat interested in the "number of edits" statistic, which provides a small but non-zero recognition to the people who have been particularly active in bringing Wikipedia to where it is now. But that statistic is obviously fairly crude and flawed, so replacing it with at least a rudimentary rating system would reward people who write tons of articles with a nice rating that at least reassures them that their contributions are recognized and appreciated by the community. And it's free.
-Mark