My problem with the kudos button is I had no idea the first time I was doing it that I was rating something. Secondly, it's at the top of a post so in order to validate it - presumably after reading it - I need to scroll back up and keep my mouse over it. I went to hover over it again to try to take my vote back, but no dice. I generally love Dustin's style and his writing on design, but I don't find Svbtle as an interface to be very refreshing or UX-friendly. I wasn't sure if I could legitimately base the weight of the article on the kudos number or just assume people thought it was cute to interact with.

As an aside, even though I had seen that Svbtle was a network some time ago, every time I come across a blog in its style I just assume it is some Wordpress theme. I sort of wish there was a better callout than at the bottom left to highlight everyone in the network.

I guess you could say Svbtle is sometimes too subtle. :)