[bloniac]

The most toxic device on the internet is the downvote.

It’s nothing more that a “criticize” button, or perhaps “attack”, “belittle”, “devalue”.

Downvotes make people feel hurt belittled and attacked.

Nothing wrong with upvoting - that’s positive.

Downvoting destroys all good will.

And of course so clever and funny here in HN this comment gets downvoted, which proves my point. The downvote is the tool of the drive by vandal. It allows people to behave like a dickhead anonymously and at no cost.

[useragent86]

Agreed. It's like, imagine being out in public, in a town square, having a conversation with a group of people while others mill about. Suddenly, you're hit in the face with a rotten tomato. You have no idea where it came from, or who threw it, or why. But you are now covered in the stinky remains of an inedible food, and everyone around you recoils in digust.

Somewhere, retreating into the crowd, is the coward who threw it at you because he didn't like something you said. He doesn't have to argue against you, nor does he have to put his name and face to his position and action. But he's effectively taken you out of the conversation.

Now multiply that by thousands of people and thousands of tomatoes, usually thrown by a certain kind of person on a certain side of controversial issues. Eventually the people on the other side get tired of being hit by rotten tomatoes, so the conversations cease, and the Heckler's Veto has won again.

At least in real life, there's a chance that the troll will be seen lobbing fruit, be confronted, and be discouraged from doing it again. But online, with anonymous downvoting, they operate with impunity, silently sabotaging conversations everywhere.

[cryptica]

I agree; it's a tool for censorship. Also, upvote is a tool for propaganda.

If implemented honestly, downvote (and upvote) would be fine, but it's not gonna happen. The downvote functionality will be an excuse to censor content. At the end of the day, it's always about financial interests.

Views which promote the interests of the financial elite and wealth centralization are upvoted, views which promote decentralization or work against the interests of financial elites are downvoted.