The wheel was thenewgreen's idea. I loved it immediately, but I can't take credit for it. At the time, posts and comments had between 1 and 5 +'s, if I remember correctly. The idea was similar, that the score was only a rough indicator of approval, and there was an upper limit. But tng was the one that said: "Why not just use the wheel instead?" Then we had the wheel, but still a plus sign to click on. Finally, I think it was alpha0 that suggested that we just click on the wheel itself. EDIT: Here's a image of Hubski before the wheel:
On my tombstone: "Came up with the idea to use the hubwheel as a voting mechanism and died at sea saving his family from Somali pirates"
btw, I didn't see the image the first time I read your comment. FANTASTIC!! It's like seeing a baby photo. Hubski sure has come a long way, good times pal!!