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 https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/126987/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.

I too find that phrase a bit offensive, so I often opt for

rep-monger

monger
2 : a person who attempts to stir up or spread something that is usually petty or discreditable —usually used in combination

I've also see whoremonger (for promiscuous men) and deathmonger (common in Sci-Fi and Fantasy genres).

I prefer rep-monger as two words because I think it is difficult to read as one (being unfamiliar and not a real word to most people), that doesn't stop you from typing out repmonger.