People like making numbers go higher. It's a strange impulse, I'm not sure why we have it. Maybe assigning everyone numbers hijacks our dominance hierarchy instincts and we feel better about ourselves the higher our number is. For me, it isn't the total that I like having so much as the feedback for individual comments. I get frustrated on other blogs when I make a comment that is informative and clever but doesn't get a response. I feel like I'm talking to myself. Here even if no one responds I can at least learn if someone appreciated it. If a lot of people appreciated it I feel a brief sense of accomplishment.