"The only way I could give them one is to find and upvote some random node of theirs that I wouldn't upvote otherwise."

You can view XP points from two sides: the personal experience and the reputation of a single node. Since nodes are the manifestations of ones personal motivation, knowledge and ability to share it, and since nodes are the very essence of this site, upvoting nodes is probably a better approach.

A nodes reputation can give hints to others, when they're in doubt of taking a node serious. Looking for nodes with highest reputation might also be interesting. However I see one problem with node reputation: It rather reflects the number of people reading and agreeing with it than its "true" quality. A short witty note in a discussion of high interest might earn a higher reputaion than a special program put to the catacombs.

So why not use your votes to balance that? Certainly most of us wrote some nodes they think of as undervoted. I'd therefor suggest to put ones "undervoted nodes" on home node. This would provide a simple way to vote for a person and balance node reputations at the same time.

^~Django
"Why don't we ever challenge the spherical earth theory?"