Perhaps another solution is to have a voter ranking option. I've seen it on other boards, basically, someone has to go to your profile and vote on you (1-5 stars, or some such). That way, It makes a person want to make relavant and informative posts, so as to inspire people to take the time to vote for them. Of course, I have NO idea what is involved in the code side of this, but it would completely eliminate the post-count padding posts, and more than likely reduce the number of idiotic flame posts. It has the added advantage of being able to see quickly how "valuable" a person is to the community. Just an idea.