Phooey. And I thought I would be the first to think of claiming a star system 
([symbol]t[/symbol] Ceti, if you please). But at least I already own [symbol]e[/symbol] Orionis.
The thing is, we already have a “rate this post” system of sorts, it’s just not done by the software. People get a pretty good feel for who knows what, just from posts like “Gee, thanks, now I understand!”. It usually doesn’t take long to recognize a quality poster, even if he or she only has a half a dozen posts.
Since Ms. On-Beyond-Bituminous hasn’t commented here yet, I’ll note that there is a “rate this post/thread” option programmed into vBB 2.x – but I suspect strongly that the kindly Administrators have had mercy on the poor little hamsters and disabled it for the SDMB operation, much like avatars and other fun-but-not-essential options.
On the other hand, the star system sounds like fun (but I’d probably get some red dwarf with a designation of something like BD +20 904112 :() However, we’ve got to give Krispy Original Zeta Reticuli, for reasons longtime posters will understand! 
Maybe I can get a nebula?
Post counts do not impress me- if you have 4000 posts in 2 years, all it tells me you have a lot more time on your hands than I do.
What I would like to suggest is that the Great Debates section be divided…
1- Great Debates- Newbies only. Restrict this to those with < 500 posts. I get annoyed if a newbie like myself posts a topic only to be told “WE have ALREADY discussed this. YOU should have done a search first.” Bullshit. Just because “the clique” has debated an issue doesn’t mean that we newbies can’t have our say. Give us a place where we can discuss issues free from intimidation,hone our debating and posting skills, and work up to the next level.
2- Great Debates- All members. Let anyone who wants post as now.
3- Great Debates- Philosopher’s Club. Let the moderators choose who is allowed to participate in this forum. Let’s say posting an eloquent and/or well researched Great Debate might earn you a Cecil Point. Being crude, rude, or profane would cost you Cecil Points. Earn 100 Cecil Points and you get to post in the Philosopher’s Club.
We had a poster who was obsessed with “Rate this thread” features (as well as cabinets…don’t ask me why) and kept touting the wonders of her own unique Crapware[sup]tm[/sup] designed to do this thing.
Most people thought that it was
[__] - Stupid
[__] - Unnecessary
[__] - Something a little weird to get obsessive and psychotic about.
[__] - All of the above
And really, we have a “rate the thread” feature. It’s the “View count” and “number of replies” fields.
Fenris
And if we’re talking astronomical features, I wanna be The X-Ray Jets of XTE J1550, ok?
how about a name/link, Fenris, if you please?
[sub]pwetty pwease, wif sugar?[/sub]
Oh, Tars, you’re just jealous because all you get is a planet, and even that in another universe (the Burroughs/Barsoom one)!
– Polycarp, who holds to the “many worlds” Copenhagen theory, and is tentatively subscribing to the H.S.C. Burroughs “world as myth” theory based on improbable events in his life
Name of the poster was Jally.
keen!
Polycarp–Hey, you mean i’m a fictional character???
gaw, whatcha gotta put folks on the spot for.
It would tend to explain a lot of things, wouldn’t it?
I had happily forgotten that name
I know of a number of msg. boards that are thinking of discontinuing post counters because of hierachy issues.
This Board is one of those, Tom, for one. TubaDiva et al have spoken very often about considering removing post counters from profiles and from under the Member name.
I like the idea of post counters. Usually people with a old Register date and a fairly high post count seem to be well adjusted to the boards. People with a recent Register date and a high post count click in my head as being people who just want to run their count up as quickly as possible. However I don’t hold that with to much merit, usually I judge on the content of a post not the amount of posts a user has. I have also found that in most cases (however not all) that people who pull the "You don’t like me because I’m new"card are just whining because they are wrong and don’t want to admit it.
Well to get back on topic, wouldn’t loading star gifs slow down the boards even more?
Probably not very much. A little tiny single-color star image isn’t going to be very big, and it’ll only need to be downloaded, at most, once per page (probably less, if it gets cached). Bandwidth isn’t the bottleneck for the server, anyway: Generating the pages is.
It may sound stupid, but post counts help me tell posters apart from each other. Having a number to assign to a name, even if that number is constantly changing, helps me keep usernames straight in my head, for… some reason. 
That’s the best I can explain it, but suffice to say I feel very lost on boards that don’t show post counts.
(I admit that this may be because I assign higher value to people with more posts and subconsciously make a note to remember them, but I don’t think so. I can name several posters I adore with post counts under 100.)
If we can’t have post counts, can we at least keep registration dates?