Buddypress Activity Stream Mods

I’ve been trying to build a site with similar features as highdeas.com, for example. I didn’t realize how primitive and hard to modify the buddypress activity stream is. WIth my limited web developing skills I can’t seem to accommodate my vision. How do I install a voting feature one the activity stream? I would like my members to be able to vote on eachothers updates, preferably to a new page once they reach a certain number of votes. Or the worst case, a simple like feature would be nice. HELP