I think we should keep the reputation system. Getting rid of it isn't what I'm suggesting at all here. Rather, merging the rep system with a thank you system - Call it Thank you or Call it Rep, it doesn't really matter.
I have found a Vbulletin mod that allows users to click on a thank you button ( You have the option to toggle to also give rep to the user when thanking. )
It also creates a small box attached to the post, thanked, displaying the thanker along with the date.
Why we should do this?
Its simple;
One of the biggest problems on forums as you may know is 'posts boosting'. There are users who LOVE to say 'thanks' when ever they can. How can it hurt? Their post count goes up, they have nothing to loose. Since we do have post count restriction on some forums / functions, this would reduce the amount of people just posting thank you to increase their post count, and would make it easier for moderators to mod as there will be less posts to read through.
There are also users who really like to express their thanks to post but don't like posting a post that looks like they're post boosting. <--- I am one of these. If you still want to have it increase the post count by clicking on the thank you button, then
Then comes the moderators who have to delete people's thank yous so a thread can look readable with out the thanks yous thrown around. ( doesn't really apply to our forum, but ok )
Finally comes the posters of these useful posts. They have no idea how many people really likes their posts if only some people say 'thanks'.
What this hack does is fix ALL these problems - except those users who like post boosting. This places a button called 'thanks.' When a user clicks on it, it places his username in a box right under the post saying that so-and-so says 'thanks' for the post. Every-one who clicks is placed in one box.
Taken from Vbulletin - The author of this mod:
About this hack:
By giving your users the extra feature, you forum will look allot nice and organized. It is a guaranteed liking by ALL the members of your forum.
Features:
Uses vBulletin easy Product installer/updater/uninstaller
Uses AJAX technology so your users don't have to refresh when they thank.
Places an easy to use button next to the edit button
Separate looks for postbit and postbit_legacy
Places all Thanks into one small box
Uses only ONE query every time you view a showthread page!
Users can't thank twice
Option to not allow users to thank their own post
Guests don't see 'thanks' button
Counts how many thanks a user gives
Counts how many thanks a post gets
Shows how many thanks a user gave in every post of his
Shows how many thanks a user gave in profile
Shows how many thanks a user got
Shows how many posts or a user are thanked
Shows info in profile
Search for a users thanked posts
Search for all thanked posts
Administrator can remove all Thanks from a single post
Users can remove their own Thanks
Turn on and off hack totally
Turn on and off hack for only some forums
Option to turn off hack for all but the first post of a thread
Option to turn off hack for all but the first post of a thread in specific forums
Option to turn off hack view of date for specific or all forums
Option to add to post count when someone clicks 'thanks'.
Option to give a user who receives thanks reputation points. <--- Make it so it uses only 1 rep and not the full rep power? ( I think that's what it already is. )
Ban Usergroups
Ban Users
Uses Phrases
Cache Templates
Guaranteed to be liked by ALL users on your forum!
[AJAX] Post Thank You Hack - vBulletin.org Forum
Hope this makes it to the consideration phase, I would really like to see something like this implemented, even if it was just the "repped by" box in the bottom of the post - not displaying the reason or anything, just the username and maybe the rep ammount.