Lately, I've been noticing that content from a select few sites gets upvoted to the front page, and when I click the link and read the content I don't find anything <i>that</i> thought provoking or interesting. Usually, just a small observation about something.<p>Does this mean that there are voting rings that ensure these things get to the front page without having too much merit? Or do these authors have so many followers that even their mediocre writings make it to the front page? Or am I just "not getting it" and these are indeed very good pieces?
Usually it's just a buzzword topic that garners votes, not the content. For example, anything with "bitcoin" has gotten play recently or anything tumblr.<p>They have code in place that blocks rings, so I'm certain it isn't that.
Two things are at play I think:<p>1) Very popular sites have lots of users rushing to submit anything they publish = a free upvote each time<p>2) Early upvotes are very important so if you can convince two or three people in your personal network you will get much more exposure