++, Coruscate. I applaud what you did. I have been here for almost 3 years, and have yet to make level 7. It's not that I don't like to participate, because I do. It's just that, in these 3 years, I have not had a single problem that I couldn't use Super Search to find an answer to, and I haven't seen a single problem posted here that someone didn't provide a better answer for than what I would have come up with.

All of my xp has come from voting. I'm like the janitor of PM, trying to keep the trash hidden and the fancy stuff on the shelf while I stay out of everyone's way. This is how I support the well-being of the site, and I have always been satisfied that the site rewards me by giving me a few more votes to spend every now and then. Along the way I have gained special superpowers like the ability to consider and frontpage nodes.

Lately, though, some people have tried to devise methods to keep people like me, who just want to help out quietly, from advancing to their level (giving fewer xp for voting, more xp for higher-rated nodes, etc.). It upsets me, because xp means something to me: it's a chance to do more for a site that has helped me out. What is a game to me seems to be a war for some people. So I'm making my own game, partly in support of Coruscate and partly for my own entertainment:

• For every day that I'm not able to use all of my votes, I push the button and lose 5 xp.
• Every time I ++ a post by Abigail (I chose Abigail because Abigail's comp.lang.perl posts are the reason I decided to learn Perl and I give almost every Abigail post a ++), I push the button twice.
• Every time someone starts a Discussion complaining about the xp system's inadequacies, I push the button 3 times.

When I reach zero, I start over. I started by pushing the button a few times tonight. I'm hoping that this will keep things in perspective for me and at the same time encourage me to keep contributing. As time goes by, I'm sure I'll feel comfortable enough to post more here, and maybe someday I'll even have a good solution to someone's problem. Until then, I'll keep doing what I do, you guys keep doing what you do, and everything is going to be fine.