This is not a feature suggestion for the magento software, it is for this sites forum.
When looking at replies on a forum such as this the way most people gauge how useful or creditable a certain post is, is on the number of posts a user has created. Although generally this can be a good way to gauge a members expertise in a particular subject.
Some experts expertise may be devalued to other people who just have a higher post count than them. So I suggest a way which users can rate members on their helpfulness. A Karma or Helpfulness score.
Although such a system is open to abuse, maybe a comment must be attached to why this member has had a karma increase or decrease, and if a member thinks he is being abused by this system they can contest it. Think ‘ebay seller/buyer’ feedback, or something like the banana awards at the following website.http://sucs.org/Community/Bananas
This type of system would help newbies sort through the vast number of posts to see which are credible.
I couldn’t agree more, it would definitely improve quality and definitely be more helpful. But this would require customisation toward the existing forum here. Who’s gonna do that? Magento team would need to take part.