I was wondering why the site looked so different after my hiatus, no rep!
I think rep should be brought back. On many message boards I go on, there is something akin to rep.
To be fair on here, it can be abused a bit-rep me back, negging people you just don't like etc.
But you could easily tell the helpful and contributive members by their rep. Also you could show appreciation for others help and advice!
As a possible suggestion, one message board I'm on got rid of negative rep after abuse. They also take positive rep abuse for one word posts etc. and also disable it on the picture boards etc. There's pretty much no rep abuse there.
But neg rep, ehh I've only been negged once or twice by a troll with a troll comment. But I never bought into rep so much that I ever worried about speaking my mind lest others disagree and neg me for it.