who cares about the rep system anyway...
Henymans picture sums it up quite well
"Gimmie Rep!"
looks like an endless circle. we are dealing with members with 80+ power exchanges
those reps going to a few members in a circle grows and grows.
for me i like helping people with their computer problems and I value a newbies 1 rep point and comment of "thanks for your help" much more. The admins could try to find posts made by new members looking for help and reward the members who have offered quality advice to the new member who only has 1 or 5 points to reward. the admins could compensate for them and pass along credit to the members that go the extra mile to encourage a warm feeling and intice more quality posts
there should be a point color scheme.
green numbers- helping others
Orange numbers - friendship meter
Red numbers - negative feedback
mine would look like this
80
20
7
Now to compliment the numbers you could create a badge system and display a cool emblem to show that this member has whatever level of skills
show your love
Egghead