To me, one of the more exciting prospects for the daonuts project is the potential for experimenting with curation mechanisms. I largely consider the current work as building the foundation for these and other experiments.

Here I want to propose a very simple mechanism: anyone can burn donuts to promote ("stoke") a post. A post's stoked score is then available as an input into visibility algorithms which may also still take into account other metrics like the age of a post and up/down-votes. An interesting additional feature would allow the influence of the stoked score to be user-adjustable.

So doesn't this just degrade to pay-to-play? Wouldn't the curated list just become advertisements? Maybe. It also becomes a tool for existing donut-holders, members with an established economic and reputational stake in the community, to influence curation. Do they use their donuts for a greater shared good or hoard them and sell them to advertisers. The economic self-interest of these users may be better served by seeking a healthy, informative community.

Pros:

• Simple
• Adds "cost" for visibility
• Uses donuts
• Adjustable affect
• Integrates well

Cons:

• this just degrades to pay-to-play - posts will just be advertisements

Modification 1

Users can burn donuts to un-stoke ("damp") a post. The amount needed to damp is not 1:1, perhaps more like 1:2, i.e. burning 50% of the stoked amount removes it's promotional influence.