>If I thought that someone was helping me because they were being helpful, I will give them more respect, than by knowing that they were intercepting every message to increase points.....

Hmmmm... "Respect" points. You might be on to something. We could have a 3-tier point system instead. It could be structured something like this:

Type of Points      Displayed       Descriptive Exclamation
------------------  --------------  --------------------------------
Respect Points      Diamonds        Cool!
Ordinary Points     Stars           Thanks.
Obligatory Points   Frowny faces    So sad. You're just begging now.

Everyone would still know where to look for the helpful or solution posts, but it would also indicate the subjective impression of the person awarding the points.

BTW, everyone relax - this was VERY tongue-in-cheek...

Renoir