Well, I will say that I am still fairly new to BBS posting and even newer to FT but I will say that I find someone with a higher post count AND a long "Join Date" to have more credibility than someone without those same credentials. Now, please don't flame me regarding padding the post count with one liners or the like; I'm just saying that new FTers or even lurkers will see those statistics and base their opinions on what is said on that information.
Maybe I'm a little naive but if I have that mindset, I'm sure there are dozens more that do, too.