We've been discussing about changing the voting system and make it as follows:
- Everybody can give a limited amount of phuks ("votes")
- Each user gets sqrt(LEVEL) "votes" per hour
- A user can have up to LEVEL+10 "votes"
- Nobody can downvote until X condition is met and a certain badge is given
- A downvote would cost the same as two upvotes
An example: I'm level 15, so I get 3 votes per hour and I can have up to 25 votes at any time. It takes 9 hours to get 25 votes at 3/hr, so if in those 9 hours I spend my 25 votes, I can still get more for the rest of the day (at 3/hr, up to 72 per day, being level 15).
Is the main objective to combat spam with bots that upvote each other?
I think the square root of level is a bit too low, for example I am pretty active, but it would mean only 4 votes per hour for me. I also think that point 3 is way too low.
But mostly, let's be vary to implement something that lowers actual good user participation. It is easy to lose attention of people who just stop by, they may not return if we limit them too much. I have not seen the need to get this system at all, not much spam so far.