I agree the downvote button does more harm than good.
Yup. It's just too easy to downvote people for the wrong reasons.
Plus, the upvote and downvote buttons are right next to each other, but have vastly different purposes.
Everyone's okay with using Upvote to say, "Yeah, I agree!" It's even encouraged: Low effort "This" type commenters are usually instructed to just use Upvote that way. But the Downvote button, despite being right next to it, has a totally different purpose. Downvote isn't disagree, Downvote is like this neighborhood watch program, where we're supposed to point out shady behavior.
Yup. It's just too easy to downvote people for the wrong reasons.
Plus, the upvote and downvote buttons are right next to each other, but have vastly different purposes.
Everyone's okay with using Upvote to say, "Yeah, I agree!" It's even encouraged: Low effort "This" type commenters are usually instructed to just use Upvote that way. But the Downvote button, despite being right next to it, has a totally different purpose. Downvote isn't disagree, Downvote is like this neighborhood watch program, where we're supposed to point out shady behavior.
It's just not very intuitive.