I was just reading another thread where someone expressed a strong preference for the input of someone with thousands of posts over someone with very few for no reason other than the number of posts, and it got me thinking...

This visual must be quite imposing, particularly to some:

I've got a ton of posts, badges, moderator, etc. - surely that gets attention and makes quite an impact.  Perhaps too much of an impact... I like to be taken seriously as much as the next person, at least when I'm trying to be serious, but it is my wish that users (and guests from outside the forum) will look at posts from everyone without bias and judge them based on their own merit.  Sometimes I make mistakes, or don't have all the info, and I would hate in these cases for someone to take my post as gospel over someone else who happens to be right just because they have 20 posts and I have 20000.  New users can know things too, the number of posts and awards you have does not necessarily indicate in any way how knowledgeable you are.