another board i go to once in a while is a MAtthew Good (hes a musician) board, and they have something similar to the karma system and theirs is really well done. Every 5 or so posts you make you get 1 "karma" point. You can then either give this "karma" point to someone else for a good post or something, or save it up. With this saved up points, you can purchase stuff at their online store, such as unrealsed tracks Matt Good has recorded, or other such cool stuff.
Perhaps on EF we can make a similar system, where you can trade 10,000 points and "purchase" the ability change something on your name or add something to your signature. Right now karma is just basically a meaningless number, when it has a ton of potential for something more
Edit: nevermind i just got the PM with all that karma stuff in it... please disregard