"Note Stepping" being used as a way to suppress good quality Notes. Requires simple fix.

"Note Stepping" ( as it is called within the Community) is when someone puts up a bogus note as a way to suppress votes on another note that they disagree with, regardless of it's validity.

The problem arises from the fact that notes are arranged by time of submission, with the newest note showing at the top. And raters are most likely to see the note at the top, and less likely to scroll down and see those below it, especially when the top note is a bogus one.

So all someone has to do, if they see a pending note they don't like is to submit another note, and the time it takes for the original note to become visible will get much longer ( if not impossible ) since it will stop receiving as many ratings.

Fix:

Just change the way pending notes are sorted in the pending notes area. Instead of sorting by new, either sort by random or sort by top. Best is to sort by random at first and then sort by top once a certain threshold has been exceeded.

Start by locating the code that orders pending notes in the repository and trace how the pending-notes area selects its display order. Compare the current newest-first behavior with the proposed random or top ordering and define how the threshold should work. Done means newer notes can no longer suppress visibility of older notes through submission timing.