Systems like HN and Reddit work (when they do, and to the extent that they do) mostly because they _don't matter_. If you tried to use them for things that peo

Systems like HN and Reddit work (when they do, and to the extent that they do) mostly because they _don't matter_. If you tried to use them for things that people care more intensely about, like determining what gets to be part of The Academic Literature, then they would instantly become the subject of concerted efforts at manipulation. Even now, HN has to deal with voting rings and the like; it would be much, much worse if people's careers were riding on it. It's Goodhart's law: as soon as a measure becomes a _target_ it rapidly stops being a good measure.