Post counts in and of themselves say nothing about the value of the ideas from a given poster, only that they're a more or less prolific poster (i.e.: have no life other than posting or know what the outside world is like).
Although they do impact things like access to the bazaar.
There are plenty of longtime lurkers whose few posts are informative and therefore very high in signal to noise ratio. There are others who have plenty of experience with the submit button but apparently not much depth in their pond.
Reputation (in an ideal world) might be a means of validating that signal to noise ratio, but it's particularly useful for those who aren't longtime members and don't already know the tone and tenor of most of our poster's writing. It's also a handy place for gauging feedback on what the membership likes or doesn't like about your posts (without taking the relevant thread OT). This can help reinforce good habits/sense of humour/etc. Or not.
As for how it affects the quality of posts, I suspect that some folks sometimes post fishing for reputation, in much the same way some teens seek validation in cliqués or membership in clubs through actions designed to get noticed. There have been members here who seemed to seek attention (positive or negative) and act out (usually as a drama queen complaining that Brad is ______ ) until they got banned.
Immaturity of this kind I think would occur
irrespective of the reputation system being in place, but in part because we have the system, folks can flag them early and others can take them with a load of salt.
Generally, I think the more mature members don't suffer these problems (go figure... green wisdom points!), and as I understand the system, longer term members have more rep to dish anyway, so those who've been here long enough to spot the thinkers from the trolls may not need rep to tell who's who.
Brad has at times had to repeatedly quote in his sig the line about
quality posts making us a quality board, so there's clearly a % of the membership who can use the reminder... if a rep point system makes that clear by rewarding quality posts, I say keep it.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Oompa Loompa
P.S. I have a little green dot growing on my buttocks. It's so sweet!
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And Oompa, it depends if it's a pale green dot or a bright green dot, and where. I'd wager it's a bit salty too.
Full Disclosure: this was my 2,999th post. Yay me. <checks depth of pond>
