If upvotes were micropayments, a lot of gaming would just stop. There would still be individual gaming of the system, but it would be a lot less. The problem would be PR flacks abusing the system. This could be fought with a well thought out Terms of Service and the right social pressures coming from the user community.
(Garret Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons)
If upvotes were micropayments, a lot of gaming would just stop. There would still be individual gaming of the system, but it would be a lot less. The problem would be PR flacks abusing the system. This could be fought with a well thought out Terms of Service and the right social pressures coming from the user community.