In science circles the importance of a publication (a scientific magazine) is measured by how many times stuff inside it has been quoted (for example Nature has a high Impact factor because so much stuff inside it is totally new and groundbreaking and will be quoted in much future research).

Wouldn't it be great if it was possible to have such a hypothetical function in forums? Every time your post is quoted with the quote button, your Impact factor would grow by one. Then, let's say every quarter year the results would be published, and the Impact factor of each registered forum poster could be checked.

I suspect there's no ready or even half-ready function for such a thing. And maybe the behavior of people would change if such a thing existed, also. But theoretically it would be very interesting, or would it?

People would only start posting more nonsense, so others would quote them and say "OMFGWTFBBQ".

like this? http://chat.woggle.org/quotes.php
(#Massassi chatting at its "finest")

In essense, such a thing sort of exists, on forums that have large communities, some things get said that seem to echo through the Internet.

eg) "You suck at the internet"

I love saying OMGWTFBBQ...

LOL

Mikus gains one impact factor point. KAAA-CHING

OQWTF GET YOUR FIELS WORKING NOW OMQ!!

Let's see if a certain admin m will s recognize c this b from u an c email k I got from him (and quote me for an impact point)

Whenever you put any kind of ratings system on a forum, it all goes to hell.

Yeah, you might be right. It could be it would only work if nobody but a few know-how-to-keep-secrets admins knew about it, and the system would be up only for a year, or half a year, and then it would be officially turned off when the results were published. So, if nobody knew about it beforehand, the results wouldn't be biased, and it probably wouldn't change behavior if it wasn't there anymore when everybody finally would know of it.

Well, it was worth suggesting...

Heh, I'd have a huge Impact factor from just that body piercing thread.

Would just lead to more spam. Even post counts, these forums would be so much better if they got rid of postcounts. There would be less overall content, but a much higher concentration of good content to read.

Yes :p