To me personally, node reputation is much more significant number in the database than the XP rating. And I have learned this lesson during my stay here at perlmonks.

When I first came here, I somehow thought that a person with higher XP is also automagically more knowledgable in Perl, therfore I was tending to think that their advice is better (not even listening to what others are saying). Sort of "I mean, hey, he's got >1000XP, he surely knows more than the next guy with just about 250XP (I'm not even reading Anonymous postings)" feeling. Wrong. It took me a few months to understand that XP only means how active the user was on perlmonks.

It was only then when I started to take judgement which reply to my question is better (I mean if they were offering different approaches) on the node reputation number. Of course, a totally wrong answer would be flagged with an answer and explanation why it is wrong, but sometimes there is also a choice between right answers. I have found that reputation number is usually a decent way to choose. Just my personal experience.

I know that I have more than 1000XP myself, and a lot of new people *MAY* think that I am quite knowledgable in Perl ("Hey, this guy is an abbot -- he *MUST* be good at Perl") while I am not. Well, I know the basics, but you definately shouldn't judge my knowledge on my XP.

Just my $0.02