I suppose I should start this off by saying that reputation has evolved from an objective "This is a good post" to "I agree with this." You may want people to only give reputation to those who are unceasingly nice and helpful, but reputation is really just a more restricted form of, say, an upvote on Reddit. If someone makes something cool, I'll give them rep. If someone says something helpful, I'll give them rep. But what if they say something snarky and sarcastic? if I find it funny, I'll give them rep. You're asking for reputation to become an objective rating that is handed out according to specific criteria. In a forum with thousands of members, that's not really going to work Now thread ratings, that's something we should talk about getting rid of.