Jeremy wrote:
] I am quite dismayed and disappointed that MemeStreams allowed
] an entire week to pass without forcing me to read and
] recommend the essay by Philip Kennicott that appeared in the
] May 5 edition of the Washington Post. This should not have
] been allowed to happen.

Sorry dude, I'll meme you the next gold star. Point taken. PEBKAC

] Between the time of publication and the time of this writing,
] I received several messages in my MemeBox, but none pointed to
] this essay.

MemeStreams is an information economy and people use the memebox to forward various personal interests, whether they are trying to pump their reputation capital or promote their personal agenda. The clear answer is that the trust metrics need to move into the memebox. The trouble is how to design the UI for this. Options include coloring, or having a different folder for untrusted memers.

] I have a proposal. It consists of one idea in two parts: gold
] stars and sticky bits. Allow me to explain.

I like the gold stars concept. I was thinking of creating some way of indicating "best of" articles, both in terms of your best personal writings and your best recommendations. If you are controlling the list you are incented to do it well, and that may remove the need to control the scarcity of gold stars. I'm not sure how I lean on this. The scarcity idea is fairly compelling in its own light.

] Starred memes are moved to the top of the stack, are
] unmistakably highlighted, with the normal white text on a blue
] background replaced by larger, bold white text on a red
] background.

I'm not sure I like the idea of sticky bits. You don't want to have to go through and delete memes. Its annoying. I think its unlikely that you'll miss gold star memes, especially if you can ask questions like "show me all the gold stars for the past month...

RE: On The Relative Importance and Urgency of Memes, and a Modest Proposal