Yes we'd like to do that, but the main problem is that we don't have access to some data that goes into HN rankings: flags, penalties, and other moderator actio

Yes we'd like to do that, but the main problem is that we don't have access to some data that goes into HN rankings: flags, penalties, and other moderator actions. These make a huge difference to the quality of front-page content. But we have thought of allowing users to provide this data on our site. They could flag posts, mark them as duplicate, mark them as being non-technical (HN mods regularly apply penalties to popular news items that are not really about hacking and startups), etc.