Thanks for the thoughts. I agree that we shouldn't differentiate ourselves from anyone just for the sake of it. I make a conscious effort not to do that. For my part, what guides my decision-making is whether or not the site is meeting my expectations, compelling, and serving its purpose. I hate to say that I disagree with most of these suggestions, but they are worth discussing. Here are my initial thoughts:

1. I agree with ecib. Reputation should be organic. Our goal has always been to let people to judge for themselves, and to take the average opinion out of the equation.

2. I recognize many users by their names, and most importantly, what they write. I don't feel that an image can influence that in an additive way. Also, users can and do change their profile images, usernames don't change.

3. This is an interesting idea. However any user can choose to only make self-posts. Sometimes I simply want to share the link. As self-posts already have more activity, that seems to be reward enough for that choice.

4. To the extent we can get away with it, I'd rather not decide how people use the site, but let the users decide who to follow and share, or ignore.

Although I might not agree with the suggestions, I do appreciate these kinds of posts, as they can often uncover new ideas that we would have otherwise missed.