I suppose that makes sense, but on the other hand, the people that would engage in egregious behavior with a downvote button will just find other ways to be obnoxious, anyway. This seems like the least awful way of going about it, at least in my opinion.
True, a downvote isn't a overly awful way of being obnoxious. Other ways would seem to have a tendency of being more accountable though (e.g. making a angry rant in the comments is visible to everyone, being hateful in private messages can probably be reported to the admins somehow). But if downvotes end up being more commonplace (hopefully not), they are probably the easiest of those to ignore.
I suppose that makes sense, but on the other hand, the people that would engage in egregious behavior with a downvote button will just find other ways to be obnoxious, anyway. This seems like the least awful way of going about it, at least in my opinion.
True, a downvote isn't a overly awful way of being obnoxious. Other ways would seem to have a tendency of being more accountable though (e.g. making a angry rant in the comments is visible to everyone, being hateful in private messages can probably be reported to the admins somehow). But if downvotes end up being more commonplace (hopefully not), they are probably the easiest of those to ignore.