I like this idea. I think it might also get more eyes on interesting topics that otherwise would just miss the front page. Once you've hidden a few stories, others would presume move up to fill in the gaps. So someone who uses the hide feature will see slightly lesser ranked stories on their front page, and thus be more likely to read them, more likely to vote for them, and more likely to get them to the real front page.
Comments
I like this idea. I think it might also get more eyes on interesting topics that otherwise would just miss the front page. Once you've hidden a few stories, others would presume move up to fill in the gaps. So someone who uses the hide feature will see slightly lesser ranked stories on their front page, and thus be more likely to read them, more likely to vote for them, and more likely to get them to the real front page.