Balkanization. First, estimate the geographic location of users. Second, display to each user (a) the comments from the geographically nearest cluster of active users and (b) the most upvoted comments worldwide. The disadvantages should be obvious from giving this practice the name “balkanization”. The advantages are keeping the number of visible active users below Dunbar’s number, allowing new users to mix with old users, preserving online contact for meetups and other physical communities, and having a clear mechanism to automatically communicate the best material nonlocally.
Edit: My suggestion is complicated to code. A simplification would be to mimic Craigslist’s locations.
In a similar vein:
Balkanization. First, estimate the geographic location of users. Second, display to each user (a) the comments from the geographically nearest cluster of active users and (b) the most upvoted comments worldwide. The disadvantages should be obvious from giving this practice the name “balkanization”. The advantages are keeping the number of visible active users below Dunbar’s number, allowing new users to mix with old users, preserving online contact for meetups and other physical communities, and having a clear mechanism to automatically communicate the best material nonlocally.
Edit: My suggestion is complicated to code. A simplification would be to mimic Craigslist’s locations.