This would create a feedback loop. Users that exhibited a certain type of behavior would quickly amass a large amount of karma. Unfortunately Pagerank is not i

This would create a feedback loop. Users that exhibited a certain type of behavior would quickly amass a large amount of karma. Unfortunately Pagerank is not inherently resistant to spam. To extend your metaphor, this would be good if we had a lot of "Ms. Wikipedia's" but bad if we had more than a few "Mr. Linkspam's." It would discourage new users, as they would likely never catch up to early adopters. The A-List blogger phenomenon is a good example of this. Big, popular blogs stay big and popular. While possible, it is extremely difficult to break in to the upper echelons of blogging. It would also reward those who post and vote on topics that are mainstream, at the expense of diversity in the community. The normalizing effect might be particularly well suited for some specific communities - financial advisers for example, or those dealing specifically with popular culture.