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So over the past few days I have noticed and involved in a bit of drama with people using the downvote button as and I don't like you button or an I disagree button. This really saddens me. I don't like seeing it. I think the downvote button should be for spam or things that are irrelevant. Thats what I think we should use it for. If you disagree make an argument. If you just hate a user why not ignore them or even block them. Please don't try to censor them. Everyone here deserves to have free speech. Even the people you don't like. Even the people you disagree with. Without free speech, what do we have? Without it we have fallen. I don't accept that we have fallen. I think we have ascended to a point where everyone has a voice. No matter what their opinion. The free market of ideas will show what are the best ideas. Don't let yourself fall into the habit of trying to censor ideas you don't like your arguments will do that better than any vote could.

So over the past few days I have noticed and involved in a bit of drama with people using the downvote button as and I don't like you button or an I disagree button. This really saddens me. I don't like seeing it. I think the downvote button should be for spam or things that are irrelevant. Thats what I think we should use it for. If you disagree make an argument. If you just hate a user why not ignore them or even block them. Please don't try to censor them. Everyone here deserves to have free speech. Even the people you don't like. Even the people you disagree with. Without free speech, what do we have? Without it we have fallen. I don't accept that we have fallen. I think we have ascended to a point where everyone has a voice. No matter what their opinion. The free market of ideas will show what are the best ideas. Don't let yourself fall into the habit of trying to censor ideas you don't like your arguments will do that better than any vote could.

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[–] [deleted] • 1 pt

People have basically already said this, but here's my opinion. What seems the most elegant to me is moving the downvote-based account restrictions to a "flag as spam/irrelevant" type button, and letting the downvote button do basically just express disagreement.

It's intuitive for people to use the downvote as an "I don't like this/fuck you" button since the upvote is basically used as an "I like this" button. By changing the functionality, you stop having to fight against every new user that comes along's intuitive reaction.

Removing the downvote button completely might do more to force people to discuss things instead of downvoting and moving on, but I don't think we'll ever achieve the ideal of having everyone always engage in discussion when they disagree, it's to energy intensive.