I started my community for aspiring songwriters a few days ago and have got off to a flying start and am absolutely loving discourse!
But one thing that has started to emerge, some voices in the discussion are clearly of a higher quality to others. Something like reddit deals with this by pushing up good stuff and letting the weaker stuff wash away. Discourse on the other hand is flat to mimic the flow of a real life conversation.
What is the philosophy here? Does discourse strive to make all voices equal? I want the best voices in the discussion to shine forward but it can feel at times like a good conversation can be diluted in discourse by lower quality content.
That’s a wonderful idea. What you have to remember is that some people can be a little shy and may need a small nudge - a little reinforcing nudge if you will - to get them to express themselves more. As they are aspiring artists, that tends to lead me to think they are starting out in their aspirations and may not be able to express themselves in a conversation as well as they can with their music. Some songwriters are notoriously boring at parties. However, they can blow people away with the songs/music they write. It would be a shame to “wash away” their voices. Even stellar performers have plenty of backup.
If you feel someone’s comment seem “lacking,” why not ask that person to elaborate on one of their comments. Sometimes all it takes to get someone to open up is for someone to express a little interest in them. They may actually surprise you.
As to liking posts, if someone posts a few times and what they have to say doesn’t get any likes, they’d probably feel like what they have to say isn’t worth anything. That would be depressing. A good community has a mix of various people’s thoughts. Silencing those you feel aren’t “up to par” will result in a sanitized community. Quite often it’s those who get ignored have the most important thing to be heard. They may just need a little friendly guidance.
I’m interested to hear more about this. When you say that some responses are of lower quality do you mean that people aren’t taking the time to formulate their posts carefully, they’re posting short low value comments, they aren’t as knowledgeable as others, something else?
like button is for. Are good posts getting liked? If not, why not? 
However, they can blow people away with the songs/music they write. It would be a shame to “wash away” their voices. Even stellar performers have plenty of backup.