I consistantly am amazed by the amount of time that goes into experience/Karma/whatever points on various boards. I believe that the voting system should be used to separate the node wheat from the chaff. I believe that that is all that voting should do. People see these rankings as some kind of reflection on thier self worth. IT IS NOT. Just becasue I am a monk and someone else is a newbie, who cares. If that newbie comes up with a brilliant answer to a stumper, then it's no less brilliant because he's a newbie.

Conversley, if an acolyte says something dumb, it's still dumb despite his (artificially inflated?) rank. Comments should be weighed based on merit, not by the rank of the poster. And all this effort to build a system by which people can be quickly judged before they open thier mouths based only on some arbitrary ranking system. I've met people who hold on to thier high PM rank like its some kind of status symbol. All it proves definately is that the person spends a lot of time on the internet, not that his comments are valid or he can code well.

These ranking systems need to be taken less seriously by a lot of sites, and the people clutching thier ranks to thier chests like some kind badge of courage need to spend less time voting and more time trying to help people... just my $.02
Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.

--P. J. O'Rourke

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