let me drop my 2 cents.
There is a great community, called Wilders Security Forums, probably some of you have been there. About 4 years ago they had a kind of reputation, if someone's reply was helpful - you would be given a "cookie" for that. It was fun to get the "cookies", I even fell in love with that and was spending lots of time composing "cookie-winning" answers.
Later, they decided to get rid of the reputation mechanizm for reasons I know not.
Cookies is a double edged sword. On the one hand it gives the posters motivation to post better. On the other hand, I agree with Lucian's opinion.
But I know wonderful forums, where there are no "reputation" and "number of posts". Some people stop being spammers and just enjoy communication and information exchange. Should we disable "Number of posts" just as experiment?
So, bottom line, "number of posts" is a mild/light reputation, that we already have. Let it be. As for reputation as a "fuzzy feeling giving factor", it is not forbidden to post and say "thank you!". We do not need the reputation to motivate people post better, they already do their best! We don't need the reputation as a new toy, its an official forum for serious people
Let's simply enjoy the communication!
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