Bananas

the bananas are a way to improve your "rank" on the site.

http://www.ibankingoasis.com/rankings

while currently being a higher status Rank does not mean anything (like you mentioned, once you get past 5 you have access to everything), I thought it was somewhat humorous and adds to the character of the site. Also, a user with a higher rank on AVERAGE tends to be more knowledgeable given that they have at least read a fair bit of material on the site -- so in that way it can act as a signaling mechanism (obviously, every piece of advice you hear on here should be taken with a grain of salt, and some users with a lot of bananas still have very limited knowledge)

That being said, in the future, I plan on giving the users of higher rank more features, less ads, priority for awards, contests, etc. A lot of these initiatives have not started yet because I've been swamped with the upgrade which will improve the overall look of the site and provide users with some new useful features (for tracking other users, managing your posts and posts of buddies, better search, more jobs, etc.)

stay tuned...should only be a few more weeks.

Thanks for your contributions...for now, i guess you'll just have to take pride in your Senior Monkey rank.