At the moment, people will only notice a member's current state of reputation when they look at the member's profile - which they most likely won't. My suggestion is that we make a member's general reputation - "Distinguised road" and all that - quickly and obviously recognisable. This could be as simple as putting "xxx has a good/bad/mediocre reputation" under "xxx"'s posts. This would be used to help members tell who might well have the most sound advice when answering a question, for example.