I want to add something about Thanks and post count...

I have seen the complaints about both in every forum that finally reaches some sort of professional status and large size. A few will use Thanking/Rating features in spiteful fashion (I admit I've done it here once or twice) and so many get up in arms about the result.

But it's a gross error, in my humble opinion, to scrap a valuable self-regulating mechanism due to relatively minor abuse.

However, I'd like to see Thanks replaced with a point system, much like threads themselves have. That adds a bit more context. I don't always fully agree with a post but will Thank the author since the mode is black or white. But I'd rather rate at 0 to 5 points, and then see a total point sum per post.

Soem have suggested a No Thanks feature but it's there by default. If a formal method was implemented, that would lead to even greater abuse. It's better to utilize a system that induces people to only rate some degree of positive influence because "balancing" that with the opposite method can work against the goal... which is to recognize positive contributions. Negative contributions will tend to have zero acknowledgment, and they can also be addressed by the Report feature. So technically the necessary balance is there.

I also think post count needs to stay as is and not just because I talk so much (). Again, the abuses are the exception and that's life. It's very easy to sift the career spammers from... people who just talk a lot.