This gives the author an idea of why you upvoted/downvoted them in the event that you cast your vote, but did not reply to the node. It also allows them to evaluate their own postings by seeing which categories they are doing well in and which they are not.

This would allow you to cast a vote for each category, in effect, "blessing" an author if you felt the node was outstanding on more than one level. The reputation for the node would be either the combined total of all categories, or if a good formula could be found - a weighted total of all categories.

In reality - I do not believe this mechanism will work and is why I have not posted it previously. It sounds great in theory though IMHO. I just give it my ++, refer to it in any post where it is relevant, and /msg the author with a thank you.

Cheers - L~R