Would it make sense to bring votes from others (by sending them notifications of recommended topics) by referring them to mentions?
Example...
I like a specific content I found on STEEM. Then I know certain users will likely like to read and curate that content, but some other that do not give a shit.
So, what should the platform be able to do? if you mention people in a post and those people actually value the post where you commented on.. then you had some value in doing it... and you should receive better curation for it (aka more height). But on the other side if the mentions do not vote, then you should be removed from winning any rewards for any votes on your comment, and likely loose reputation, based on the amount of reference you are doing.
To prevent bots or bad users here is quite simple... let's make the weight of your rewards based on averages... make too many references to several others using bots and creating a wave effect, would be stupid, because, the higher the number of references, the same average it will create... and therefore not so optimal the advantage. If on the other hand, a very powerful wants to put some value on the post and for some reason, someone had mentioned lots of users to try to win some bucks, that user will actually lower the average per user... by being mentioning everyone.
Likewise, if the same user tries to mention only big users... and the content get's only validated by a single user. then the average will be catastrophically low!
The concept...
These mentions I am referring should be different from current mentions. They should be some kind of "recommendation" and should be seen as the user receiving the recommendation, filtered (highest to low rank) so, the useful recommendations are taken into account first. Also, the longer it passes without your mentions taking action, the less your curation should be.
This will likely solve, BOT auto-voting problems, thefts trying to impersonate people, SPAM, and too greedy readers that wish to strategically promote content using big references.
Does it need more detail? the idea? Shame I am not a good coder like you guys. otherwise, I would be creating my own commit already.
While I confess I am confident I don't fully understand the ramifications of your idea, I will say that this is exactly the kind of out of the box, original thought I most admire, and that makes Steemit to me like Heroin to a junkie.
Thanks!