Points encourage people to focus on the quantity of threads and posts rather than the quality of them. I don't really see any theoretical value to them. Does it encourage people to participate more? Maybe? But if they do participate for the points, again, is that really a good motivation? Does that improve the quality of the discussion on this forum, or help the long term health of the community?

I think it's a nice feature, but some people do take it too seriously.

However, it is also true that the spammers of today are more tolerable than the ones of 2 or 3 years ago.

Well said.

I don't even pay attention to my points. I just comment on what I find interesting enough to comment on. So it wouldn't bother me either way if the site did get rid of it someday. 

For the people who say they personally don't care about the points, the problem are the people who take them seriously and as a result spam a bunch of threads, either trying to go for controversial ones (flamebait) or making threads that'll get a lot of replies (e.g. contests).

This sounds like a great argument against achievements and trophies.

Initially it did with certain people we all know spamming , now it seems to have calmed down probably because points and badges are no longer new and the site seems to be in a permanent holding pattern so that type of thing seems to have lost it's luster.

I said this Months ago and I still think its a good idea.

The spam HAS slowed down, but there really isnt any reason to keep them.

Yeah, I don't like people calling me a 'Goomba' anyway.

Contest threads are my fav :D