The first part of that is more or less the slashdot system, which I think worked pretty well. However the recommended friends / advocated devils seems like it w

The first part of that is more or less the slashdot system, which I think worked pretty well. However the recommended friends / advocated devils seems like it would encourage groupthink / witchhunts / voting rings, etc. Personally I think the best way to modify the current system would be to have up/down votes only affect the comment's position on the page and nothing else, no persistent or visible score for users or comments.