[ndh2]

The biggest problems in my opinion are the drive-by downvotes. If you're not willing to fix the problem, you should not have the right to engage.

Downvotes should be tied to some sort of criterion that the asker/answerer can meet, like in a code review. If you get downvoted, you should have the ability to notify the downvoter "alright, I fixed the issue you had with my question/answer", and get the downvote undone. If the downvoter doesn't engage, undo the downvote automatically after a certain period. This process should be completely public, and have a log/history that everyone can see.

Same with flagging as duplicate. As the asker you should have the right to defend yourself against overzealous flagging, and be able to let the mods know why some other question is not actually a duplicate. Flagging as duplicate should be phrased as a question to the asker: Hey, did you see this question? Does this answer your question? And the asker should then be the one to decide whether or not it does.

[hirundo]

At least force the downvoter to categorize their reason from a dropdown (e.g. slashdot), with an optional line of description. Hacker News could benefit from that too.