Yes, I am in fact an x10 employee. Feel free to email me at alexg@x10.com.
I'm going to be straight with you: X10 is not going to moderate this board, and I'm the only one who's in a position to make any changes to the forums software. While I may have some time in the future to implement some suggestions, at the moment that is not feasible. Sacking the negative rating thing is very reasonable, but the truth is that I have a lot of development on my plate right now and just do not have enough time to learn how the forums work.
That being said - I am a forum-goer myself and I know how frustrating it is to have a couple idiots ruining things for everyone else. If the community here can agree on an individual or two (or agree on a process to select one), I am happy to make them moderators, who can delete posts, threads, and ban users.
And.. one last thing. Though we might not show it very often, we do love you all. This community has become a fantastic resource for X10 users and we don't want it to fall victim to the same problem that ruins so many good forums. Hopefully we can meet in the middle on this one.