Nah, It goes back way further than that.

Slashdot had a similar system a decade before reddit existed.

It has had other names on other forums but it is essentially trying to quantify reputation.

You can upvote stuff here (and downvote on kbin) so you will still get a group that are obsessed with making the number go up.

Like on reddit, positive visibility. Voting manipulation could affect which posts are shown as Hot or Active. Reddit also hides comments with many downvotes, which thankfully isn’t a thing here.

Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean others don’t \ or that it doesn’t exist.