There must be some way to get a 'best of breed' without going through all the growing pains and frustration that come with setting up a community and then to see the inmates take over the asylum.

I also like to think that /. and HN appeal to a completely different audience, and the whole 'points' thing may be detrimental to that. As far as I'm concerned it could be completely under water (as in invisible to users of the site) and just used as a way to give/remove functionality and to influence sort orders and things like that.