IMO it's all in the moderation. Reddit's very rudimentary up/downvote system, well, sucks. It lets the lowest common denominator rise to the top, which oddly enough is not what most users want to see.
I'm imagining right now a Reddit with Slashdot's moderation system... but, I continue dreaming.
> Reddit's very rudimentary up/downvote system, well, sucks. It lets the lowest common denominator rise to the top,
Which is why Hubski's solution is interesting. You're recognizing the quality of the content does not really lie in a singular post or link, but with the poster, in a general sense. There are certainly certain posters on Reddit who I know I can always look to for good content, -makes sense to have your feed populated by good content providers rather than up-votes from the crowd.
>You're recognizing the quality of the content does not really lie in a singular post or link, but with the poster, in a general sense.
Correct me if I am wrong but, isn't that how Digg used to work? I remember there were these few prominent accounts that had a lot of posts "promoted" and made the site worthless when they started posting crap.
Slashdot… just failed remarkably. Randomly assigning moderation points based on existing karma was clever but… somehow the same, SAME five memes kept getting (Score: 5, funny) and the interface made it actively painful to browse through the comments.
And if you've figured out how to reliably build a community from scratch on the internet, well, there's a few billion dollars in it for you...