Which, I completely agree, ruins the value of the whole thing.
I do think that they should hide the first -1 rating (makes the site seem friendlier), but two -2 ratings should then show up as -2, not -1.
And positive +1,+2, etc... there's no reason whatsoever to hide that!
Maybe, but the problem with that is it relies on X number of people with enough knowedge to see a bad post and down rate it before it becomes visable which adds to the chance of someone who DOESNT know better following the advise.
Clamping negative rep, sure I can see that as the number follows you around, but the ability to mark a post as 'bad' in a technical form is, imo, very important...