One Vector's views and suggestions on how to use Meridion effectively.
Simply rate people as to how you see their value to the CoV. Attempt not to allow personal feelings to get in the way. Think for a while before changing ratings. The objective is to provide feedback to other members. The more predictable - and reliable - the players are, the easier it is for everyone else to provide effective feedback.
Don't spend time attempting to adjust the pecking order (your (or anyone else's) place on the list). This is something Meridion does automatically - simply because enough of the congregation voting, for it to be very difficult for any one member to change another's ratings by a significant amount.
The main reason is that members need to assign fairly extreme ratings to make such changes, and it is much easier to squelch the reputations of others downstream of you to change their positions than it is to boost them or yourself. Which means that trying to play tit-for-tat or other elementary political games is quickly spotted and tends to result in the person trying such games sinking rapidly in the esteem of their peers and on the list. Attempting to maximize your own score is a fools game, as those around will notice such efforts and you will probably end up lower on the tree than you would otherwise be (as I noted, it is much easier to push people down than lift them up - but will probably result in you being penalized by others).
Tit-for-tat, while a theoretically elegant strategy in a zero-sum game, does not necessarily result in an optimum strategy in a non zero-sum social environment - which this is.
My recommendation to you is that beyond rating, and keeping your ratings of others up to date, that you ignore the results of the reputation system except as a source of feedback of the community's reaction to whatever games you may choose to play - as others may well be - indeed probably are - playing different games. This is why the results are no longer in "reputation order.' It is easy to establish which way your reputation is moving, less easy to play hierarchical games this way. However, as you experiment and select your game strategies, you should be aware that the reputation system contains a few members very competent in game theory - and others who are less so - who will react in different ways to varying strategies, introducing a complex, time delayed, chaotic factor into any games you may choose to introduce. This will probably have the beneficial effect of (at least initially) breaking local plateau effects (later less so as active involvement itself will likely plateau). Further be aware that not everyone spends much time looking at the BBS and adjusting their factors - which makes it more dificult for you to establish whether changes were triggered by yourself or other factors. Without a dialog, which might happen through the reputation system itself, through the Karma system (intended to rate posts), through the BBS or on IRC, it makes it more difficult to play the game effectively. Communicating (or miscommunicating) your strategy to other Virian Vectors can be helpful in and of itself, and may result in feedback which is even more useful.
The system as implemented is flexible and can handle most any games you choose to try. Please don't criticise the system unless you can offer concrete suggestions for its improvement, and please consider that real people have to spend real time dealing with changes and their implementations. Through the rating system, possibly in communications, including reading and updating documentation, as well as, potentially, at the software level. This burden still falls on to relatively few shoulders, and establishing how to spread the burden is another laborious, time-consuming and very tool and consensus dependent process. And the greater the load placed on those carrying it, the less likely we are to be able to spend time on evolution.
To join Meridion, simply visit sign onto the 
BBS and log in. If you haven't already done so, you will need to sign up onto the BBS. You must enter a valid email address when doing so, as your password will be mailed to you at that address. Now, while logged in, click on the 
button on the BBS, or here, Reputations. Now scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click "Enter Ratings" on the bottom right and start rating those people you know. Explore other parts of the User interface to learn more about the system and other members of the congregation. Once you are a member of Meridion, let others know, on IRC (at irc://irc.lucifer.com:6667), via the chat interface (at http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=54;action=chat) or simply by clicking 
on the BBS. Consider posting about your self and your voting strategies to the main list, and when your reputation becomes high enough, participate in working on the wiki.
Bear in mind, that within reason, the more people know and like you, the higher your reputation will rise.
Evaluate posts made on the BBS and main list and take these into account when voting.
Evaluate contributons to the wiki and take this into account when voting
Examine the [IRC logs|
Penalize members who do not vote, reward those who do.
Penalize members who do not rate the reputations of others, reward those who do.
Penalize members who do not rate others, reward those who do.
Penalize members who are inactive.
Score members on how closely to the median, how linearly or how closely to a bell curve they assign points.
Rating everyone the same high - or low - reputation. Scoring everyone a 5 Rating people in "artistic" groups. Trying to play tit-for-tat. Assigning low scores to those with high reputations and vice versa Rating 3 out of 49. Not keeping scores up to date. Not participating in voting.
Regards
Hermit