I'd rather not see the users pictures at all. With most sites it seems you end up with a few bulk submitters in each category. Seeing their faces/avatars over and over again would get really old really fast. I could see it also potentially altering voting behavior. There are certain users on all social media sites (reddit and hn included) where some users will be upvoted/downvoted just due to their popularity or "fame". A visual indicator might increase those trends as they are faster to spot.

Definitely a picture from the linked story. I don't really care who the submitter is.

The goal is to draw attention, so that people will discuss the stories. Glad it worked. :)

It's a nice theory... Until you look at the sheer range of quality of postings on Facebook. Have you seen Lamebook? It's utterly mind-boggling. I don't believe that identity has even the slightest effect on stupidity. Facebook proves that, in my mind.

Metamoderation has always demonstrated the ability to support quality, especially in the absence of identity. People lacking history or demonstrating poor behavior punish themselves and self-select in that environment.

I'm not complaining except for the fact that I'm deliberately avoiding Facebook - there are people on there I want nothing to do with and from whom I wish to isolate myself, and the utter complexity of privacy issues on Facebook further turn me off to it. I feel safer when I can dissociate my accounts across various sites, however misguided that may be. I'd like to participate on your site, as it looks interesting, but the requirement of a Facebook account is a complete dealbreaker.

You should copy reddit's. Basically time-based sort, and trending submission sort.

Also inevitably you'd need some grouping/labeling so users can filter out/in. E.g. I'd never want any submission about cats.