You're contending that a stream is equivalent to an identity. That is an artificial constraint, and it is going to break down sooner or later.

The purpose of having two streams is to apply a filter; it goes with that definition that items will be multiply recommended.

As far as "gaming" the front page goes, it's hardly necessary to recommend things twice. Take a look at the front page any time in the last week, and you'll find at least half of the entries are from the pnw stream. Most of those are not recommended by anyone else. There have been many otherwise "slow" periods during which the entire front page is essentially a subset of the pnw stream.

I'm trying to think forward. How do you suggest we handle the situation were a user create multiple accounts, all appearing to be different users, and recommends every link they post multiple times?

What guidelines and rules do you think should be applied to handling this situation?

I'm open to suggestions and advice, but my initial feel is that we should stick to a one-user/one-stream model, at least for any given link.

RE: A Better Idea, By Francis Fukuyama and Adam Garfinkle