I don't like Ron Paul at all, and I didn't vote pg down, but I might have. I simply disagree with the premise that it's an active conspiracy. (Instead I voted up some other posters that responded)

Social sites are tyrannies of the vocal minorities (as is democracy, for that matter, but that's a longer rant). The whole idea of voting something up or down is a flawed _concept_. "Up" and "Down" have various and sundry meanings, and people are emotional animals, not rational ones. No amount of algorithm tweaking is going to make a bad concept into a good one.

Having said all of that, I felt like the game was rigged for RP too for a while. Now I've come to understand that social voting is a mob-like affair, and does not have the best interests of the reader in mind. If there was one thing I could fix in the world, that would be it. There's simply too much time being wasted by all kinds of smart people reading stuff that has no value to them. (whatever the topic) </rant>