Wow, so there actually is support for such an idea. I raised the issue three months ago at Search Options, but no one replied! Some specifics related to your suggestions:

• I'd like to see results sorted by Rep.
  I'd rather have a set of options for ranking, like post date, rep, hits per page, etc.
• I'd also like to be able to search posts by author.
  A great idea.
• I'd like to not have all the perlman pages show up so often.
  More generally, I'd like to be able to sift out nodes based on what area they were in (with a multi-select fieldmajigger). That way you wouldn't find Running With Scissors when you were looking for "running with scissors".