Slashdot chews on new elitism theory

Slashdot is having a good free-for-all about power laws and communities. Do all communities (or networks) inevitably over-reward some participants and under-reward others? And, if this is true, do enough benefits accrue from the sorting to overshadow the unfair distribution of rewards? As one Slashdotter puts it: “Friend/foe systems, such as the one here at Slashdot, tend to actually make community better rather than worse.” I’ve chewed on this questionhere before.