I think people with a long time membership and somewhere between a solid 900-1000 posts without participation in endless relay chatting threads are the most trustworthy.
Personally I liked seeing the post count and the rep was kind of cool. If it is causeing some sort of problem with memebers then be gone with it, I don't really understand what kind of problem there is/was. But what I don't know/understand can fill a (very large) warehouse.