I'm positive we discussed that "feature" once before, but I didn't find the discussion via a couple of searches. If I can think of what I may have said in the previous discussion, I'll link it here. I'm sure it was something similar to what I said above, though, as my thoughts haven't changed. Another forum to which I belong, but where I seldom post these days, used to have a "reputation points" feature, but the moderators wound up scrapping it because they felt it didn't offer any benefit. Among other reasons, it tacitly implies that new users' posts are not useful, which is not necessarily true. Sure, established users may have earned credibility from their participation and their history of useful posts (though of course it's equally true that established users might have earned a bad reputation!), but that doesn't mean a new user might not make good posts that can be judged on their content.
