Does each user have unlimited votes to give to others? Could a small party spend all their time voting for each other and skew the intention of the site?
E.g. if a large enough cultural group - woke brigade, christians, alt-right, whatever - seeds the website, and they upvote mostly each other's posts and comments, I can imagine that this creates a very strong echo chamber effect. Even stronger than reddit, because any contrarians would have to pay for the privilege of being shouted down, and because you don't yet have segmentation of the website, and because there are no downvotes. I can't imagine anyone staying, if they're not a member of the dominant tribe.
I know OP pictures "being nice and helpful" the Schelling point around which activity crystallizes, but it doesn't have to be so, and it won't necessarily remain constant, imho. It might as become a libertarian hub, and the only discussions will be about libertarian talking points and memes. Or a hub for any of the other major sides in the culture war or other strong internet subcultures.
E.g. if a large enough cultural group - woke brigade, christians, alt-right, whatever - seeds the website, and they upvote mostly each other's posts and comments, I can imagine that this creates a very strong echo chamber effect. Even stronger than reddit, because any contrarians would have to pay for the privilege of being shouted down, and because you don't yet have segmentation of the website, and because there are no downvotes. I can't imagine anyone staying, if they're not a member of the dominant tribe.
I know OP pictures "being nice and helpful" the Schelling point around which activity crystallizes, but it doesn't have to be so, and it won't necessarily remain constant, imho. It might as become a libertarian hub, and the only discussions will be about libertarian talking points and memes. Or a hub for any of the other major sides in the culture war or other strong internet subcultures.