Believe it or not, contributing wonderful nodes that nobody reads contributes very little value to the users of the site.

I think you need to take it one step further.

Just as unmined gold contributes to the potential value of land, so does an unread post to the potential value of the site. The problem here is not the post, but the moderation system and its inability to recognize and promote it. This is no easy task, and I could easily write a book on it (probably 10 of them if I were smarter ;) but due to the length, and the fact nobody would see it, I won't get into moderation system design here.

It is important, however, to realize that these "experience points" are not rewarded on the basis of site contribution, but on the basis on site contribution after processing by the moderation system. Or perhaps as Werner Heisenberg would say "What we observe as experience points is not site contribution, but site contribution exposed to our method of moderation."

Suppose that we are wise enough to learn and know and yet not wise enough to control our learning and knoweldge, so that we use it to destroy ourselves? Even if that is so, knowledge remains better than ignorance. It is better to know even if the knowledge endures only for the moment that comes before destruction than to gain eternal life at the price of a dull and swinish lack of comprehension of a universe that swirls unseen before us in all its wonder. That was the choice of Achilles, and it is mine, too.

- Isaac Asimov