Why the experience nerf

[OneInTen]

You must earn your respect (or lack thereof) over time by contributing to this community however you choose.

I find this one interesting. Surely that cuts both ways. A new member does not know who the old guard are either. Hence, the old guard have to earn the respect of the new member just as much as the new member has to earn the respect of the old guard.

My belief is that so long as a forum has a healthy influx of new members, you have to continually act in such a way to gain respect, or else you'll soon find your "status" lost as the new outnumber the old.

Attempts to "recapture the old days" by trying to exclude new members are infact very unhealthy to a community over the long term, because new members evaluate people on their current actions. Without such impetus, people's behaviour tends to degrade unnoticed over a period of time until a once good community goes bad.

Just an observation, not really of the Lurker Lounge in particular, but of forums in general.