You know, there's another thing that shows the superficiality of the primitives.
Way back when it was "0 replies, 74 views," it also showed 2 "recs."
I think Skins should set things up so that a primitive can't recommend a thread until after the primitive's commented upon it.
I suspect what goes on is that a primitive sees the author of a thread, and if the primitive likes the original poster, the primitive "recs" it without reading it.