What's a less offensive substitute for "rep-whores"?

If you want to put a positive spin on it without straying too far from the sound, try rep-hound.

From

hound n
1.1 [with modifier] A person who avidly pursues something:
'he has a reputation as a publicity hound'

(see Oxford Dictionaries: hound)

The term rep-farmer is also used.

Discussed here: What is rep farming?

Why not rep-junkie. Oxford Online defines junkie as

[WITH MODIFIER] A person with a compulsive habit or obsessive dependency on something: power junkies

A Google search shows some minimal usage (sometimes as repjunkie), but ngram does not.

Obviously, you could use the longer form reputation junkie, but it lacks the punch.

The simplest and least pejorative terms would simply be occupied or minded. These remove the implication that the person being discussed is doing something improper through their efforts, which isn't always the case.

He's extremely rep-minded, he always puts a lot of time and thought into his posts

She's fairly rep-oriented, she doesn't answer unless the question is really interesting and likely to gain a lot of attention, I wish we could draw her out more often.

This could also have a negative connotation, depending on the context:

That was rather rep-minded of you, wasn't it?

This implies that someone was doing something purely for some sort of gain while calling out the behavior without potentially insulting them by colorfully alluding to some sort of addiction, lack of discretion or lack of self-esteem.