The 84.4% statistic is cited in the census report (linked in this article, along with other census reports effectively showing the number is unchanged over the years). And where are you pulling the 4% number from? Sounds like a completely made-up number, similar to the rest of your claims.
Proof from a authoritative source would be useful to validate your claims, don't you think?
Next to Jim Crow laws, in recent times, there likely isn't a larger civil rights issue in the discriminatory realm than taking good fathers away from their children. 84.4% of mothers are the custodial parents (in the US according to census data). And this has been going on since the 1970s, "hidden" in plain sight.
You might be right - that, ultimately, we find that the system can be gamed more. That's not our hunch, and it's way too early to tell at this point, but we won't ignore the results if that's how it turns out.
StackOverflow really needs to implement this functionality, though. The hours upon hours we've saved by some of the answers there really deserved a real reward.
valME is young, granted. That doesn't discount the idea.
Yes, any content provider can throw money (via fake accounts, advertising, etc.) at their own content to increase visibility. That's why advertising works. On sites like reddit and FB, it costs the content providers effectively nothing to manipulate votes. On sites like valME and Updn, there will be a (minimal) cost. It's a small barrier for manipulation, but a barrier nonetheless. That, alone, should reduce vote manipulation significantly.
valME also has a cost for downvoting. When you downvote on valME, it costs you 2 karma (and your downvote removes 1 karma from the content provider). This should significantly reduce downvote brigades as there's now a barrier to downvote.
Because moderators (and everyone else) can now see who is voting and in what direction they are voting, users who manipulate voting will be more obvious to everyone. Mods can then change permissions (both for domains and users) or use the modqueue to remove posts. (If mods remove posts and comments, like Upde, there's a public trail and a reason required. Additionally, the posts are taken out of the community's queue but still are accessible in the "graveyard" to prevent censorship.)
You're correct - many coders and designers do create for the sake of creation. More power to them. But you can't live off that. There is great content out there on various blogs and, if they don't have a donation button, the most I can do to really reward them when I like something is clicking on some random ad so they get the credit. Technologies like this, with the cost of a penny or two, don't put up a large barrier for content creators, and it gives them an alternative to advertising. It also gives them the potential for a huge upside when people really value their content.
The market here isn't for content providers of memes or 140-character comments. It's for higher quality content providers. I'm not sure why you're scared of the idea to find alternatives for rewarding people who give us value.
Updn is effectively what valME.io [1] does (although valME has many more bells and whistles, doesn't require someone technical to install and run it, uses bitcoin and PayPal, etc.).
It is especially encouraging to see this open sourced. One of the goals of valME is to find ways where content consumers can bypass the behemoth publishing and media industries and financially support our favorite content providers directly. Could micropayments to bloggers, authors, writers, musicians, et al. not only add-up to an important stream of income but also provided significant competition to the publishing oligopolies?
I'd like to see the concept taken even further. For example, search engines: could upvotes/downvotes be used for search algorithm rankings, upending the SEO industry? How about books? What if authors published their books on open platforms where readers could upvote and/or tip the author as they read (e.g., "I really enjoyed that chapter, so I'm going to upvote it and give the author a few cents/bitcoins")? How about applied to the king of question/answer sites - StackOverflow? I know there are plenty of SO coders who deserve more than our non-tangible upvotes for the time and effort they saved us. Music? Upvote the song and give revenues directly to the band, bypassing the big media houses.
Advertising is currently the primary source of revenue for most websites and content providers. Micropayments based on voting and tipping could change this revenue model. What would happen if it did? Would content quality increase? Would it become easier for unknown content providers to gain visibility? Would search results become more useful? Would companies like Facebook and Google be forced to change their business models? Would copyright legislation become less relevant?
Technologies like Updn and valME are about upending the entire revenue model for news, social media, blogs, forums, and search engines - advertising. They could give unknown, quality content providers a real, viable alternative to working for the mainstream media or writing blog posts that aren't even getting a few pennies from Google AdSense. They could take power away from the entertainment lobbying companies. They could even help encourage teens to write and create outside of 140 characters, a snap of a camera, or a silly Facebook post.
But, philosophically, they can also help encourage a few thoughts that apply outside of what we do online. There is too often a belief that someone should get something for nothing; get something without effort; get something without paying for it; get something without trading for it. People forget that there is always a price for value. They forget that someone, eventually, has to pay. The Internet is a hotbed for reinforcing the idea of something for nothing.
We need to reduce the power of advertising dollars on the Web. We need to give content creators a different viable distribution channel to make money in order to reduce the power of copyright lobbying efforts. Directionally, Updn is a great way to do that and, as a competitor, I hope it is successful and we see more like it.
This is one of the primary purposes for developing valME.io - to give quality content providers a better way to make money from doing exactly what they already do, and without advertising. You can read about the details here: http://valme.io/c/gettingstarted/faq/kqqqs/how-valme-works/ and the genesis of the idea here: http://valme.io/c/gettingstarted/faq/pkqqs/the-genesis-of-va.... We would welcome your content and be happy to give you a free community called /SpaceIndustryNews (or whatever you want to call it). If you're interested, when you register, just indicate it's you.
Proof from a authoritative source would be useful to validate your claims, don't you think?