Tiered access to active users
Lately I've been savvy to the idea of tiered levels of users within a community, set up such that the more active a user is, the more control the user has over the content or direction of the platform/service. Gawker does this well. Traditionally a gossip/rumor capturing site, their new angle is that the editors have opened up posts to the public such that anyone can easily add their own stories and celebrity sightings to the site (see: Open Gawker Site Allows Anyone To Publish Anything).
The way they do this is by giving different levels of access to different users; active members' submissions go through very little monitoring or are posted right away, while unregistered users' submissions go through an editing process that can take a couple of days. Evidently Foursquare has taken to the same kind of idea, granting different levels of Foursquare-editing superpowers to more active participants.
I'll try to use my powers for good.
