It has also been pointed out before that the asymmetry of voting and commenting is most of what enables vote-rings and other invisible manipulation on link aggregator websites. If entities are manipulating a site by leaving comments, then this is almost by definition visible. If entities are manipulating via voting but not commenting, then they are invisible except to possibly administrators with relatively high-powered analysis tools designed for network/graph analysis. For example, one could manipulate a site by registering many accounts and then steering by downvoting one type of comment and upvoting the opposite type. Anyone who sticks their head out with a good comment opposed to the manipulation gets punished (and depending on the site mechanics may in fact eventually be banned or lose voting powers etc), while counter-voters at least don’t suffer.
It has also been pointed out before that the asymmetry of voting and commenting is most of what enables vote-rings and other invisible manipulation on link aggregator websites. If entities are manipulating a site by leaving comments, then this is almost by definition visible. If entities are manipulating via voting but not commenting, then they are invisible except to possibly administrators with relatively high-powered analysis tools designed for network/graph analysis. For example, one could manipulate a site by registering many accounts and then steering by downvoting one type of comment and upvoting the opposite type. Anyone who sticks their head out with a good comment opposed to the manipulation gets punished (and depending on the site mechanics may in fact eventually be banned or lose voting powers etc), while counter-voters at least don’t suffer.