Re: Adding votable links to other sites, like digg

Ignoramus16172 wrote:
<...>

My idea is as follows. In every module, I would have "top 5" links to
lessons on OTHER websites (on related topics), and "top 5" links to
calculators from other sites. Anyone would be free to propose a link
and anyone would be free to vote. The "weight" of the vote would
increase with the "score" of the user (the score system already
exists).

I could require that any website linked from algebra.com should have a
backlink.

The benefits are, more community and participation and, most
importantly, more value to my readers who would be able to find
lessons and solvers outside of algebra.com.

The drawback, obviously, is that I would be sending my readers away
from my site. Another drawback is a little more complicated -- now I
have a lot of tutors writing their lessons on algebra.com to gain
visibility (they mostly have altruistic motives), but if they can
publish elsewhere and have a link placed to them, they would not be as
interested in publishing on algebra.com.

My hunch is that this is a very good thing to do, but I want to hear
some feedback.

Are you currently running a forum? AFAIK, most forum packages have some
sort of voting capability. If you aren't, you might want to consider
adding one. That would add the sense of community you want in a big
hurry, and would also keep the users on your site. Plus, you could
easily add the voting capability, and tie it to discussion threads which
would provide even more detailed feedback.

If you choose to do this, there are a lot of good, easy-to-use Open
Source / Free license forums out there. My personal recommendation would
be PHPBB or VBulletin