Another idea is to allow following certain people. It is easy to create PageRank algorithm that would follow the followers and rank the submitted stories. This

Another idea is to allow following certain people. It is easy to create PageRank algorithm that would follow the followers and rank the submitted stories. This can be very robust and explainable system compared to other algorithms. As others have mentioned, recommendation systems end up creating filter bubble which is not a good idea for "news" site. However enabling downvotes at the least would prevent community subgroups hijacking the frontpage.