I think that users who have made the most contributions to the site should have more voting power, more rating power, etc.
That way, they would be heard before people who had just signed up.
Kind of like when people are in high school; when they're seniors, they get first dibs on electives they want, more sports/ clubs to join, basically every thing is about them until they move on (in this case, decide to leave the site) and the juniors are the next ones to have the majority of say.
