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As a simple heuristic, it's an elegant solution.

Could the front page 'merit' be more or less ~accurately~ described via continuous function?

for (User user : item.up_voters) merit += user.life_span_in_months/12;

for (User user : item.down_voters) merit -= user.life_span_in_months/12;

Or, perhaps you could define 'merit' as continously compounding interest with their average karma density (votes/items).

Taking the interest forumula "Pe^(tr)", and substituting might yield something like:

P = 1, -1, it is the single up/down vote

t = user life span in years

r = karma/submissions (karma_density)

for (user:item.voters) item.merit += (sign_of_vote)e^((user.life_span/12)(user.karma/user.submissions))