It's my experience that anything that whiffs of self promotion tends to get downvoted away, which seems reasonable.<p>Anything that expresses a non-mainstream opinion might hit the initial downvote limit, but recover over time if it turns out to have some merit. (My fascination with capability based security falls into this niche)<p>Something non-obvious, but informative, tends to get a bit of upvoting.<p>The rare really good point that builds discussions... those get rewarded richly.<p>So, the moderation system, as near as I can tell, works as intended. The feedback cycle takes a while to train us for better behavior, but it seems to work.<p>You do have to weigh all of the above, against the factors that overcome inertia, and lead to someone posting.<p>Most people reading are likely to see something expressed at least as good as they would, and thus just lurk.<p>It's only when you've got a nit to pick, or an interesting tangent, or need to self-promote, that people tend to post. These are the forces always pushing against moderation.