I don't see "vote traders" making great content, because if they did, they wouldn't need to trade votes.
Yeah, I agree with this completely. I'm not sure if I communicated that well in my comment.
One concern is fear of honest voting due to retailiation. This is a subject I am brain storming to come up with possible solutions. I think without fear of realtionation, we would see a equalibriem on what content is worth what and get a more fair free market assement on what each post is worth.
Interesting. I'll think on this one myself as well, although I'm not sure if I'll come up with anything tbh, it's a difficult conundrum. It's definitely a legitimate fear for most users... simply because of stake and people not wanting to have their accounts destroyed. This is just a risk you take, but the fear is very real for lower stakeholders. I literally didn't downvote at all until about a month ago, and I've never been fearful about expressing my opinions about some of these issues in comments on posts where many people would have seen them. It's an odd psychological effect that the fear of hitting that downvote button sticks.
Anyway, interesting conversation... it has left me thinking.