For transparency purposes, may i suggest that a thumbs-up (or thanks) be issued once only either weekly or monthly to each user?
ie - 1 person may only do it once a month/week to a each different forumer?
- it promotes fairness of the issuance of these thumb-ups (because now you will only get 1 from each user most, either on monthly or weekly basis)
- it generates more movements for forumers to contribute more constructively as by then these thumb-ups would have to be earned
- current system allows the creation of "clone" accounts to manifest (i am not pointing fingers at current users, this is just my experience from other forum systems)
actually i don't think it's necessary. cos i believe thumbs-ups should be issued to every deserving post, and it is possible (even common) for forumers to produce more than 1 deserving post per week...
i think its not necessary...as it should be based on merit and value to the thumbs up giver...hmmm...how about monitoring for 1 more month before you decide on a thumb up limitation.
the key function of the thumbs up is for the moderators to provide incentives , I would suggest keep the currrent system for quantitive indications, and then moderators do a qualitative checks on the post to decide if this member deserves the incentive.
I would say don't over regulate...or we could just get rid of the whole thing...if its good posting, a personal THANK YOU post is better.