I love the stackoverflow model of up and down voting and how it is moderated so well. It is apples and oranges to a large degree but I wonder if there was a way

I love the stackoverflow model of up and down voting and how it is moderated so well. It is apples and oranges to a large degree but I wonder if there was a way to introduce up and down voting, then having things show up based on that, rather than having some moral authority taking things down. For example, if enough people down vote something, it has the effect of disappearing from the public stream but of course you can still see your friends posts. Maybe this is just a software problem given the right setup.