Subs would ideally be economically isolated - as would trust. This is part of the concern of users setting up subs - the community is small and a strong wind, some bigger community, could completely knock it off course. 

k00b

Daily discussion thread

saloon

Oh, I didn't think about the economic ramifications.

Let's say for some reason a sub gets really popular -- oh, like maybe a K-Pop fan sub.  And that attracts a lot of new users to Stacker News.  Maybe numbering even more than those of us who wouldn't visit the K-pop sub.

But there's no cross-benefit.  Those who came for the K-Pop stay in the K-Pop.  And the K-Pop sub gets few visits from those who didn't join SN for the K-Pop. 

What happens to the yield?   Do those K-Pop Stackers earn yield from the same "pool" and at the same proportion as a "trusted" contributor of SN (root, or whatever the main SN is defined as?)?