Interesting. I reached the same conclusion. I start by inviting trusted friends and friends of friends to sign up to the community before it's open to the publi

Interesting. I reached the same conclusion. I start by inviting trusted friends and friends of friends to sign up to the community before it's open to the public, and use their voting data as a base to measure against. And, of course, continued tweaking is also required. It's not 100% democratic because a selected few set the tone of the community, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Seems to work great in news.yc.