Maybe the problem with spam as it relates to the design game lies with the voters. Because there is no cost to the voter, they can mindlessly plus every link that comes their way. Add that to the fact that voting activity supposedly earns you money, then people are going to vote on everything regardless. This severely damages the integrity of the design game.
If there is a cap on the number of times that each person can vote per day (say, 5-10 votes), then everybody is going to be more cautious with how they vote. Then (for the most part) they will only vote on items that they wish to see make it to the auction.
This might have two effects:
1. Because people will be more cautious with their voting habits, this will drive down the effectiveness of spam, which in turn will drive down the amount of spam.
2. This will encourage careful voting, which will encourage actual browsing through the catalog. This might, contridictorily, increase the number of pageviews for the worthy items.
Food for thought. There's apparently no feedback box on this site, so the best I can do is blog into the void and hope that someone discovers my ancient writings on stone tablets in the distant future.
