I thought the linked story was pretty lame, but at the same time, I thought it was an interesting conversation. In the end, I didn't vote up the link, but I did participate pretty heavily in the comments.
I would like a way to distinguish between liking the story and thinking that other people should see it. But at the same time, I realize how complicated that would make things.
This question/dilemma actually relates directly to my YC app/idea, so I'm going to be following the comments in this thread pretty closely.
I literally have to remind myself go through the news list and comments and vote up every so often -- after I've consumed the material. It's not part of the consumption process for me at all.
There have been a lot of stories on YC that I agreed with, but I thought the linked article was poor. And what about good AskYC questions that have no-so-good conversations? Would you vote up the question because it's good, or ignore it because there's nothing of value there for anybody else?
This is kind of one of those seemingly pointless philosophical conversations that have a great deal of meaning once they turn into solid solutions.