What if I tell you that you can +1 someone referenced with emoji? For example +1 :pepe:.

To have this kind of functionality we would need to implement some interface for adding aliases.

Proposed interface:
+1 alias nick :nick_badass:

TIP: You should treat :nick_badass: the way username is treated when +1, which would probably mean that +1 alias nick :nick_badass: should create nick_badass alias and not :nick_badass:, but better double check it.