Originally Posted by joshwex90

But I really don't see the gaming part here. The likes are meant to identify helpful posters. Unlike post padding which people can do to "earn" higher post counts, people can't control their own likes (that they receive).

No one gets brownie points for liking other peoples' posts. It's about the likes they get, which is out of their control, barring writing something good or helpful

I'm not trying to be dense or argumentative - I really think I must be missing something on the downside/potential for abuse