The SO model seems tricky to generalize. I like that downvoting has a cost but for political topics that’s vulnerable to sock puppets & trolls unless there’s a very healthy karma threshold.
I was thinking more about the situation where a bunch of accounts are registered and upvote each other into prominence or coordinate downvotes. That can have a pronounced effect on community norms and many communities don’t have enough genuine participants with spare time to stay on top of even minor troll infestations much less a GamerGate, Russian political operation, etc.
