The fact that I know I'm closing in on 10,000 tells me that there's something valuable to me about post count -- though I honestly can't tell you exactly what that is.

Post count does not directly equal quality, of course.

Goodness knows many of my posts have certainly fallen short over the years.

And yet I take a certain pride in my level of activity and involvement in the community, one rough proxy for which is post count.

On the flip side I am willing to cut a member a whole lot more slack -- for not using the search feature, for asking a basic question, for posting in the wrong forum -- if I see that their post count is low. Maybe registration date alone gets me there, and I could use it as a substitute for short-hand judgment, but I do find post count a handy metric.