MySpace Tom Posted:

In general, I think a useful way to analyze why a submission succeeded or failed is to keep in mind that the vast majority of voters are only giving things at most a few seconds consideration before voting. Any joke that takes more than a few seconds to appreciate is doomed, which means your references need to be very accessible (and you need to know your audience pretty well, of course). I have to admit that I’ve downvoted a couple items that didn’t “click,” only to get them later and wish I could go back and change my vote.

I generally concur with Tom on this one, I sometimes will powervote my way through forumbuildr suggestions and some of the subtle humor found in some submissions likely bypbumes my until it’s too late.