although this thread is asking for simplifications - here a complementary thought:
when counting the number of posts by members - would it make sense to distinguish the posts by their significance?
E.g. posts count by member would include three numbers: "total posts", of that "significant posts" versus "unhelpful posts"...
For instance, I could go through the forum and simply post
multiple times, or even troll, thus increasing my count and making me appearing serious to newbies... On the other extreme, there are members who put time and effort into writing and designing their entries, which then have serious impact on the community and devs. So, similar to reddit, any post may be up or downvoted, and certain tresholds of net up- and downvotes would put it into "significant" or "unhelpful" counts. If a post gets lots of both up and downvotes, it could perhaps be counted into additional "controversial" category.
If such distinction is implemented, then members' hierarchy and badges would be measured more accurately going forward and so provide better orientation especially for newbies...