I guess I just don't see how the fact that one has written over a certain number of posts, or the fact that one has donated money or whatever is likely to be a reliable indicator of the level of support one can expect to receive if one were to seek that person out.

A person might have only 5 posts here and yet be uncommonly supportive if you seek them out.

A person might have 5,000000000000000 posts here and yet be uncommonly incomprehanding / unsupportive if you seek them out.

I guess I just don't see how relevant the indicator is of the level of support that people are capable of providing. And I guess I think the indicators can be positively harmful if people take them to be reliable indicators of things that they are not in fact reliable indicators of.

If people are using them as reliable indicators of the level of support that a person is likely to provide then I really do understand why some people will feel upset if they don't have those indicators. They will think that others will likely perceive them as being unsupportive if they don't have the indicators.

I'd prefer to just bypass the whole issue by...

1) Choosing not to view the indicator 'status' of others (so I'm not tempted to form unwarranted generalizations about others on the basis of them
2) Choosing not to have my indicator 'status' viewable to others (so they aren't tempted to form unwarranted generalizations about me on the basis of them

I actually think...
This issue ties in a great deal...

To issues that have already come up about gender / age / race stereotypes...