[rms]

What if the downvote only appears if the story is above, say, 7 karma? This would limit how long a lightweight story could be high on the frontpage.

[ghiotion]

Karma is variable, no? As the site gets more traffic, karma points will start to go up over the board. A rising tide lifts all boats, so to speak. 7 may be a good threshold now, but will it be in 6 months?

[rms]

Probably not, but it's the kind of thing that could be manually or algorithmically adjusted.

[derefr]

How about, simply, "only the top five stories can be downvoted?"