As a matter of fact, it would make me ecstatic if they did so. I'm just sick of the brigading and the bickering and the bullshit.

It wasn't stickied by the community, it was stickied by the mods. They would put stickies on posts that weren't even remotely worthy of a sticky to increase its visibility. It's not against the *rules,* but it is scummy and it was mucking up the front page unfairly.

What I'm saying is that their being stickied WAS the vote manipulation. Mods were stickying their own posts as karma bait, then users would get them to the front page.