What's interesting about this forum environment, is that there isn't really any practical purpose to want to collect kudos/rep. There isn't a chance to go viral. And with such a small community, it's not like someone is going to become famous in any way because they got 10 kudos on a post, or hit 50 rep. Everybody is a pretty known commodity.
In this specific situation, I think maybe the kudos/rep is a loose reflection of the responses one's posts receives, which is where the echo chamber effect takes place. So a kudos is a substitute for "I agree with Kevin" rather than posting "I agree with Kevin." So it serves as shorthand more than anything? But what it's shorthand for is the stuff about positive feedback.
In this specific situation, I think maybe the kudos/rep is a loose reflection of the responses one's posts receives, which is where the echo chamber effect takes place. So a kudos is a substitute for "I agree with Kevin" rather than posting "I agree with Kevin." So it serves as shorthand more than anything? But what it's shorthand for is the stuff about positive feedback.