I think people put too much weight on things like this.
I've been on message boards for over 12 years. People know me because of my name and what I contribute, my karma (which we don't have) or likes or friends don't matter.
There are a couple of awards. One is the ability to downvote as well as upvote. That comes pretty early. The second is the ability to change the color of the stripe at the top of the page (for your own, logged-in views).
I think people put too much weight on things like this. I've been on message boards for over 12 years. People know me because of my name and what I contribute, my karma (which we don't have) or likes or friends don't matter.