What if you could respect/dismiss while also agree/disagree? Something like a compass rose instead of only up/down. You could weight the values for display differently if needed as time goes on and make respect only somewhat portable into new discussions.
It'd be kinda cool if mods could post mod notes on posts in some way that could be used to mock or correct a user without changing what they actually said.
This spot on the main page should be a sticky with an FAQ or something... Like, brief summary of the rules, links to helpful stuff like imgbb, links to popular subs good for new users, maybe a margarita bar or something I dunno.
WhereTF is a good place to host images now? Imgur is a javascript hellhole and tinypic is gone. Reward is eternal occasional upvotes as for as long as I remember.
Maybe a dropdown or something. Could be useful to expand someday from comments/posts/both to also include most upvoted or most downvoted or most votes.