Yeah, well...that was blown a long time ago to prove the point that rep given on forums was just that, useless. And with the thread mentioned, the moderators were posting there also.
It is the same with any forum on the net, people rep their friends all the time, and it doesn't matter if the post had actual merit or not. It is their friend and so they give rep..
I am guessing that on any given forum, if you could see who was doing the repping of anyone there, you would find it was mostly the same people repping the same people all the time. Like the political forums here, the people who are on one side of the fence rep thier cohorts, and some lower life forms there neg rep anyone that disagrees with their views.
Kind of like trying to rep someone for a post in the end of this thread, discussing if rep should be legit or not... you really think any discussion about rep being worth anything is worthy of repping someone? I don't. What kind of advice was given that deserved rep?
Nothing... and that is exactly the point.