Given Rich's response earlier, it doesn't appear that any meaningful change to the ranking system is possible.
I use the "like" feature frequently for all of the valid reasons expressed by others, and also when Adman starts a thread announcing a new forum sponsor (and I usually include a "welcome aboard" reply in the thread). If a ranking system is necessary, I'd prefer one that gave ranking credit ONLY to the member who supplied the reply or thread that is "liked" and not to the member clicking the "like" button.
