By 57 different people for example.

ahhh - so he made the 22 posts and was thanked 57 times for them.

ok - I have to think backwards for that

Beside thumb-up / thumb-down ...

I'd suggest a more advanced ranking system:
Registered users can mark a thread/post 'insightful' , 'informative' , 'interesting' , 'troll' , 'funny' , 'ridiculous' ...

or moreover , maybe these terms can be defined by admin (globally) or moderators (per forum)

And ubbt can calculate the most influential term of a thread/post.

Therefore , one thread/post may be marked "Score:4 ,Insightful" or "Score:5 , Funny" , "Score 5:Insightful"

Yes , this is from slashdot. But I think it really useful.

Users can quickly search which topic is most useful , and whose articles are mostly marked insightful (or funny ...)

I don't really see that as something too many people would care about...

Now the "thanking" a post or a thread; I see that as catching on at most places

Honestly, UFO's ranking system (or something similar) might work for my board. I kind of like it.