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What's wrong with a follower or friend system? I would if I have the resources ;-) Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think your objection is they can be noisy or obnoxious. I'm sure it can be done "tastefully".
Then it becomes about gaining popularity and power users. Reddit's about to ruin itself by implementing profile pages and following. I like a good old fashioned message board on which people can discuss topics, and no friends or followers have to be collected to be heard. That's why I like RA and Reddit. You can just join, dive in on a topic, and generally people respond.