Another option would be to have several overlapping networks of trust. On Advogato, the trust metrics are related to software development. But this does not say much about how each person is good at playing music, understanding nuclear physics, wrestling, or cooking Chinese food. If each criteria is governed by a network of trust as in Advogato, then the system could be much more difficult to abuse. I don't know if it is possible to design a system that it sufficiently robust while still being fair and not elitist.
Suggestions are welcome.
This reminded me a lot of the parody that Alan Sokol did for Social Text. His point was to demonstrate that soft scientists of the postmodern variety are very uncritical. His original article contained a number of deliberate mistruths designed so that even first-year physics students could refute them. However, it all sounded very good. I'm not sure exactly what the Social Text affair proved.