[McAtNite]

> I think there should be a cost to upvoting or downvoting, so they can't be handed out willy-nilly.

It would be really interesting to run an experiment where this was taken literally. If upvotes/karma/whatever you call it were to be treated as almost a type of currency, and submitting a vote directly cost you a vote from your “balance” what would the discussions look like. You could even deal with inflation by lowering the value of votes people already have by increasing the cost for a new vote.

I don’t think this would get you away from the groupthink and pandering comments, as people would probably try to appeal to the widest audience so they could bank more votes, but I’d love to see if it would cause people to post more meaningful comments as opposed to predictable jokes.

[ryandrake]

Maybe give people unlimited upvotes but a budget of downvotes, say 3 per day or 3 per article. This wouldn't prevent multiple accounts colluding to brigade a thread or person, but it might help stop the casual, uncoordinated drive-by downvoting.

Or, make people actually type in why they're downvoting before it counts. Again, wouldn't stop a motivated attacker or coordinated attackers, but could add just the right amount of friction.