Andre is onto the logic we're aiming at[1]. "Points" represent "activity" while a "thank you" feature would represent "reputation". We would treat those two values separably - as in real life[2]. Badges will be earned from both values - different ones. The QnA feature has reputation gathering features like marking a post as helpful or marking a post as "the answer". We will start gathering the data from Day 1 (also from older threads, fear not) while we will not have a humorous system like the ranks in place for a while. Ideas welcome though :)
fn1. Disclaimer; I haven't spoken to Alexandra about this for a while - the QnA feature and upcoming Qt 4.8 doc release has kept us busy from a devnet perspective (not to mention devdays!) - so she could have changed her mind.
fn2. Not ruling out combination badges! Like "the currently most revered gene splicer".