I'd rather just follow other users. See HN as you see it. Piggyback off your good taste, curation.

A la the multireddit feature, if I could combine the page views & upvotes, and filter out the flags & downvotes, of you and everyone you recommend in your profile, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't see the trolls, flamewars.

I used to moderate forums. Major chore. The notion of just following people you like, trust would remove a lot of the moderator's make work.