Everything can and will be abused. My thinking is if you require a reply it would at least spur discussion instead of just the random downvoting. When I get downvoted elsewhere, I'd love to know why they downvoted my comment. Poal is one of the few where you can know who downvoted you if you interact enough with the site. I think there's too many people who hide behind the anonymity downvoting gives them.
Ya know what, I think you hit on something. I'm going to try to voluntarily comment on posts that I down-vote, explaining why I did so. I wonder how that will work out...
Depending on how the site is designed, it can also be a form of censorship. If a site is designed to have the top comments get the most attention, Breitbart's comment section comes to mind, it is very easy to manipulate what is seen and what isn't.
I'm not sure how Poal handles top comments. I guess or can answer that.
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