I like BBQ's ideas about limiting votes/rewards for voting out, and his signal/noise comment pinpointed a nagging idea I've had...

What about awarding XP based on signal/noise? Perhaps if + votes >= # of posts...?

while ($PositiveVotes >= $NumberOfPosts){
  foreach (new Post){
    $XP++ if $_->receives('A Positive Vote');
  }
}
[download]

This would certainly encourage quality posts, discourage "noise" and "me too" posts, and give a very real reward to those who go out of the way to produce thoughtful and helpful posts.

Number of posts is currently a primary measure of a monk's worth, but shouldn't we also reward the less wordy, but more thoughtful monks among us?

This would be even more effective if there were fewer non-posting ways to earn XP, but...

Russ