I've tried fighting that battle. I even started a poll about it in GC several months back. The number of infants who whined, cried, and clung to their post count like it was the last pacifier in the galaxy was quite disheartening. We decided not to yank the post counts, since so many people obviously place value in a number which appears below their screen name on an internet message board. (Can you tell I think the concept of someone actually giving two pins about their post count is ridiculous? I mean, really... get some goddamn perspective.) It's something that's possible one of these days, but the recent decision was just to turn counts off in the former NHB.
Maybe but most of the people who bitched about it haven't moaned since they were discontinued in NHB, and they certainly haven't changed their posting habbits.
I say, if Dames et al thinks that doing away with post counts will make the board better, do it. It's his board, we play by his rules. And if you're worries about people leaving because of it, do it for a trial period only. I can almost guarantee, though, that the number and quality of posts on the board wont change. Hell, the other day Brujo started a thread which would have been called post whoring if there were any posts to whore.
This whole pussy-footing aroung, however, reflects badly on the board and the people in charge of it.