I think post count and stars and the nickname thing shouldn't exist, or should be hidden. People post stupid things with no thought or anything behind them, simply to get their post count and stars up. It's like some sort of internet popularity contest. Also the fact that there is no "reputation" button makes it worse.
Look at it like this. I'm sure you all have heard of reddit and 4chan. Well reddit has user names and a karma point system which everyone can see. People post things simply to raise their karma points, and it inevitably decreases the quality of the postings. Look at 4chan, while it may be somewhat harder to find things of quality as it's a lot less organized, there is absolutely no point system and no user names. It's totally anonymous, and for this reason, there ends up being some serious and REAL conversations and discussions.
If we didn't have a visible post count or stars on the forum, people wouldn't be so inclined to post mindless drivel, as it would be totally pointless.
