I'm sure Zaprank would need to add a new more conditions to try and avoid spoofing it, like if its individual account zap weighting is high, you could bot farm 1 zap users and have 100 zaps to boost your ranks.

If its based on engagemetn for example, you get the whole FB/Twitter incentive to outrage bait and turn discussions into screaming matches to get reach

I wonder if things like cowboy hat, hat streak, comment totals, and other factors are added to your reputation, and the weighing of each, I guess knowing the secret sauce would defeat the purpose and it can quickly get complicated to maintain.

Just look at Google search, they're constantly refactoring weightings as spammers find ways to jump up the index