An option for having submissions of selected users to float to my front page even with a score of 1 (and perhaps staying there longer than under normal circumstances).
Call it "tracking" or "following the user" if you will.
>>huhten+(OP)
Alternative: highlight all posts by followed users, similar to how fark.com does it. I can quickly scan the page to see the people I'm interested in, and still easily see the context for their discussions.