Your response takes things in a different direction than what I was thinking about when I made the initial post, but it brings up a broader issue which I think goes to the essence of Stacker News. I have noticed what you describe, which just seems to reflect human nature. We love to be validated in our opinions. Last night I listened to @k00b's interview on the Closing the Loop podcast. He describes working on the incentive structure of the SN payment method. He wanted the site to weed out the crap and assure that the best stuff got rewarded without human curation. It sounds as if he is continuously thinking about this, and tinkering with the method. He's obviously a very bright guy who has given this a lot of thought, so this may evolve and improve over time.