At the moment, as I'm sure you're aware already, if members have less than 20 posts their ratings do not count for any points anyway so it does not affect your reputation. If anyone abuses the reputation system you can always report it to an administrator (Martin) and they will handle it.

I don't think this feature will be added for a couple of reasons
  • It prevents legitimate ratings from new members. Even if they do not count for points, it's always nice to get a Thank you message or whatever.
  • It would require a PHP code hack. Our hacks are generally limited to stuff that can be done in the templates, like Javascript. Other hacks just make the software harder to maintain after upgrades etc.