Unidan could just create an account on multiple instances and vote for his posts/comments with all these accounts. That way his content would gain more attention than those of sincere users.
In case of malicious bots (like those annoying bootleg bots on reddit), it might even be profitable for them to create their own instance(s) just for that purpose.
Is there a mechanism to prevent that? (other than user/instance banning and the introduction question on user creation)
This sounds interesting. I see two possibilities for that:
Actually when I think about it, a combination of both would also be possible.
Just let each instance/community decide its own policy. People will naturally flock to whichever policy works out.