I agree with the above, because Mouldy King Bash gave me -17 rep. And some people like NFX had more rep than Starcore and Clickbeetle. It just got abused.
It was definitely broken when I had the second highest rep on the boards. I think it's better now.
But like the rep system, I think this should operate on a case-by-case basis, instead of a trial period for the noobs where we might risk it getting screwed up. Plus, I doubt the staff could keep track of around 200 members in that scenario. If you can prove yourself to be reasonable and unbiased in certain situations, then you might be given the privilege of changing rep, or the new members board.