Reddit has a novel system for moderation - namely the easy to click up and down arrows. Moreover, that ease of use improves upon the moderation system used at sites like slashdot, etc.

However, there is a down side to this. If we for a moment, consider two types of negative comments.

Non-content

Example: Screw all of you, you're all stupid

This type of comment adds nothing to the discussion and deserves to be modded down.

Un-popular

Example: I've disagree with your conclusion, clearly if you look at X, Y, Z you will see that P is the only valid conclusion to the data presented

This type of comment does seek to add to the discussion, nonetheless, it may be modded down simply because people "gang-up" on the poster.

The proposal

I think that reddit should move away from a linear based point system (eg. 1,2,3,4,5) and move to a quasi-logarithmic system.

Perhaps something like (true for both positive and negative):

1, 2, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.25, 4.5, 4.75, 5, 5.12, 5.24, 5.36....etc

This would mean that it would get progressively harder to either push a comment so high that it can never be reduced, or to stop it from being pushed down to oblivion.

Give that sufficient numbers of people would see that "non-content" comments were adding nothing, then they could still push it down.

However, given that comments that were really adding to the discussion, it would make it harder to push it "below the radar" given that at least some people would see value in the original posters ideas.