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I've spent some time on internet communities that used a plus or "thumbs up" system for individual posts. Back when I produced a lot of YouTube videos, I also spent a lot of time reading YouTube comments (and naturally noticed how the highest rated comments went straight to the top). My observations are as follows, admittedly just one man's anecdotal experience:
1) A plus/"thumbs up" system works well, but not a plus/minus or thumbs up/thumbs down system. The problem isn't in rewarding popular opinions, it's in punishing unpopular ones (which is particularly problematic for anything of a political nature). I say this because...
2) Generally speaking, I do find that the highest rated YouTube comments tend to be the best YouTube comments. If nothing else, they certainly tend to be the wittiest YouTube comments.
I think it's important to remember that almost everybody here is at least a somewhat knowledgeable anime fan. You pretty much have to be in order to care enough about anime to comment on it on an anime message board. It's not like we're taking a hundred or a thousand completely random people and asking them to evaluate comments on anime. If so, I'd be very concerned about "mob rule" myself. But within a community of dedicated anime fans, I think that "likes" or pluses or thumbs up could say a lot.
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