Fine. HN is the best among the contenders, but that's not something that one ought to hang one's hat on. Posts don't rise on their own merits here. If that is a goal, there is much room for improvement. There are a number of situational factors that influence whether any post will receive attention. These include, but are not limited to timing, competition, the new post reader archetype and his/her motivations to participate, etc.
I don't think that limiting downvotes to accounts with X karma is a significant contributor to the problem of getting attention to a new high-quality post on a fairly high-volume site.
- mandatory 60 second re-click to submit a comment, without edits
- mandatory 60 second re-click on votes after a rate threshold is exceeded
- multiple choice votes to express motivation, intention, feedback
- do not publish karma numbers
- publish "example threads" that show values being practiced, including dead links/comments examples
- randomly assign usernames every 12 months
- tags and tag feeds
