There doesn't seem to be much of a methodology to discouragement beyond the written word, which I personally prefer though it took a moment for me to break the "Where's the downvote button?" reaction. People should encourage and discourage via attention, whether it be to ignore assmunches or to lift up the brilliant. The worry becomes when the assmunches band together and lift one anther up. To which I say, then is the time to literarily slap them.

As for a database, I see two sides of that coin and one scares me. Having no database and written rule as to what each # may entail discourages evolution of topics.

For example, I like #ing my musings on introspection and insightful thoughts with #philosophy. I see now that most of the things currently in #philosophy are traditional philosophical issues and not simply people thinking deeply about the world around them, but I for the life of me cannot think of a more appropriate #.

Were there a directory, and assuming I were a good little user and looked for an appropriate place for my musings before writing them, in all honesty, I would find no appropriate place, deem myself obviously uninteresting and never would have posted in the first place those thoughts that in the end turned out to be incredibly interesting topic to many on hubski.