One thing that I'm keen on someone trying out is this: Instead of having upvotes (or likes or +1s or whatever), separate the concept out into different notions

One thing that I'm keen on someone trying out is this: Instead of having upvotes (or likes or +1s or whatever), separate the concept out into different notions. You have a different goal in mind than I do, but my list was "Agree, Eloquent, Beautiful, Laughed". You might instead have "Agree, Promote, Eloquent, Useful". The principle is to have a small list to capture the different ways someone reacts positively. It's a short list to prevent the paradox of choice, but it's descriptive enough that you can still meaningfully express your upvote in more than one dimension.