[chomp]

Here's a hot take: Once Digg/Reddit (and then later with the social apps such as FB) showed strong engagement numbers to VCs with a simple up/down community moderation system (or single button in FB's case), it sucked all the air out of the room for innovation in community-based moderation. Now all social websites just seek to grow in the same well-tread path.

I haven't seen anything really innovative since Slashdot. Has anyone? Is there any room for innovation in user-based moderation and curation for social websites?

[_y5hn]

HN, Reddit, Kuro5hin, gaming, many places. What differentiates them isn't the tech, but the admins and moderators curation of social behaviours.

[nathanaldensr]

Innovation would have to come from making it more expensive to downvote, if one assumes downvoting has inherent issues (it does). It's simply too easy to knee-jerk react by clicking the button. Same thing with upvoting, too. I think both directions of voting should require some "payment" (if you will) before they go through.