Sarge:
Just keep this in mind; DSP managed fine with no respect system at all, and was a lot more succesful than NP is (although that's probably due to the success of the DS)
Also, what about posts that need to be edited, e.g email addresses posted etc.?
Based on member sign ups in the first year, NP is actually more popular than DS-Play was. Also bear in mind that NP has NEVER had the kind of exposure that DSP got from massive sites such as Joystiq, Digg, and DSFanBoy....
I actually think NP is really in a pretty good position at present...Sure it needs a s*** load of work doing to it...but its doing okay at the moment and will be in good shape once i get back around to fixing its nagging bugs.
If you remember back DSP never managed without a respect system....1 of the major reasons it was pulled was due to the uncontrollable
spam on the site...That
spam has never been present to the same level on NP, its just the Respect system isnt secure enough. Lessons get learnt as you go along...And i really think that all the major hic-ups of NP are all but nailed with gr00pz.