On one message board I used to be on, people's post number became a real issue... not arguments about it, just people "for fun" posting nonsense to get their post number up, but it became rampant and very annoying to most members.

It got so bad there they changed the software options so that the number of posts was no longer displayed beside a persons name when they posted (you could still see post totals in their profile, but it was no longer in the face of everyone in every thread) and they had to make a rule banning "congratulations" threads whenever anyone hit a milestone, like their 1000th post. There would always be a huger "party" thread, not in itself too bad, but then others close to 1000 would be encouraged to put up a lot of short meaningless posts to reach the milestone also.

Sheesh!

I had a knee jerk reaction when I first saw this but I think people here keep it in perspective, so it won't become a problem. I agree with Kris that it has little to do with anything, other than for some interesting fun. That's why I felt OK to joke about it... on the other board I wouldn't do that because people would be clamoring for the results.