1) logged in users can vote for what they like, both up and down. A profile is built identifying other users who vote like you, and so your vote influences the post prominence for those others more than for other users who have different voting patterns
2) anonymous users get post prominence based on a smattering of different group votes
Its a bit like movie recommendations. In this way, trolls will quickly be grouped with other trolls and those who consistently vote up articles they like will see post prominence from like-minded devotees, and a single board can have a wide range of subjects that end up not needing categorization because they are self-organising.
It's not too far off. On Hubski, the content you see is based on who you follow (people and/or tags). Importantly, you don't just get the posts of the people you follow, but the posts they share with you. (you might be interested in following someone that doesn't post at all, if they find and share quality posts). Likewise, posts you share go to your followers. -You can share and unshare.
My thinking on Hubski has been guided by the idea that groups should form and dissolve as people wish, and that Hubski become a multitude of overlapping and ever-changing groups. As user following-relationships are color-coded (http://hubski.com/about), you tend to build a familiarity with a number of people that are connected with you this way.
IMO it's not just content that should be the result of choice, but also how familiar you want to get with members of the community. I'm currently doing more work to this end.
In a nutshell, I feel effort is best spent enabling users to build and break boundaries and groups as they are wont to. -It's not as important that you behave as I would like you to, if I can easily avoid you.
1) logged in users can vote for what they like, both up and down. A profile is built identifying other users who vote like you, and so your vote influences the post prominence for those others more than for other users who have different voting patterns
2) anonymous users get post prominence based on a smattering of different group votes
Its a bit like movie recommendations. In this way, trolls will quickly be grouped with other trolls and those who consistently vote up articles they like will see post prominence from like-minded devotees, and a single board can have a wide range of subjects that end up not needing categorization because they are self-organising.
(Would this work for, say, HN?)