Okay, I've been mostly a lurker here on PM, with a writeup here and there. In the space of a month and a half of visiting the site regularly, I've advanced to Monk on just 10 writeups, none of them with particularly high reps. I've been advancing and gaining privileges without giving anything back. If this system forces me to participate more to gain XP, that will be nothing but good for me, and (hopefully) PM. I think rewarding people who post (and post well) more than lurkers and voters-only is in the absolute best interest of PM. It's obvious that someone who posts a great, insightful node has made a greater contribution to the site than someone who votes on a random node from 2 months ago to get the XP bonus. Giving the active, thoughtful posters greater rewards will give them more incentive to stick around. And that, I contend, is a Good Thing.