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comment by MYGODWHATHAVEIDONE
MYGODWHATHAVEIDONE  ·  3866 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Downvotes *are* bad for the community.

The problem in general is the over-reliance on voting as the best or principal measure of quality contribution. Wikipedia rejected the voting model early on:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:NOT#Wikipedia_is_not_a_democracy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Polling_is_not_a_substitute_for_discussion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Voting_is_evil

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Polls_are_evil

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_vote_on_everything

Voting up and down is a really low-investment form of interaction. Approval style voting is not ranked/relative and is context free. While voting should still be included, it should not be the principal or most important gauge of quality contribution.