At the moment giving a cookie is the same as adding one without taking one from yourself. Same goes for stealing a cookie, you take one but you dont get one.
We could make it so the cookies function as a currency, you give and you take. But that would always limit the amount of cookies in circulation unless we add new ones from time to time. This will also make it harder for new members to give cookies because they would start with 0.
What do people think?
i dont like the idea frankly, i think it would encourage cookie hording. By that i mean lets take say geXXos. He posts massive amounts of content, i often find that i cant even karma him as much as i want to because of the one hour rule. Now if you make it where i can truely "run out" of cookies what becomes worthy of one? And while sure its an arbitrary currency that has no real value, physiologically it is a "carrot". you posted good stuff for us we give you a noticeable pat on the back. Any time you log in you can go "hey the community appreciates me spending hours searching for new sites/content that we havent seen".
If you make cookies themselves rarer, which by doing this its a given that they become rarer(infinite supply vs finite). I think this will create a "toxic" environment, which was i know part of the reason you removed neg karma to start with. in the end i think this would not only end up sky rocketing the complaint department, but ultimately make the board itself less active and less friendly for all.