[ocdtrekkie]

I think I've commented before on wanting to see this as well. Anonymous downvotes are pretty much just meaningless negativity. I'd much rather have the ability to see why I was downvoted, and tell other people why I downvoted them. (I think this would make sense to only be visible to the downvoter and the downvotee, to keep the visible public discussion constructive.)

[digitalarborist]

Tech folks always say communicating with huge corporations is similar to communicating with a psychopath, but communicating online in general has this feeling. You're not talking to anyone it's like talking to a brick wall that will give you a pat or a prod after you give it a couple hours. I think I might just not be up for online mob communication like this and will just go back to lurking. I do have the desire to contribute, but it doesn't really feel worth it a lot of the time.

[type0]

Completely agree, some threads feel like people are talking in the same voice. The feeling is that you are not reading the conversation but some sort of badly ordered essay. Absence of avatars is also the one to blame for this but it also has a good effect that you don't judge written comments by the picture next to it.

[type0]

The problem is that you get counter down-votes for those explanations and that quickly turns into flame wars. As is it now everyone free to comment on why they downvote someone. I can see it being useful to not allow making too many downvotes for one person for one day. This way knowing that your downvotes are limited you could spend them wisely.

[ocdtrekkie]

That's why I would keep those downvote explanations private to the people being downvoted. And don't have them part of the vote/downvote system.