The down vote exists so the community can deal with trolls/spammers and other extremely negative content they don't want to see on the site (hate speech, harassment, abuse, bullying etc), so the down vote serves a definitive purpose.
The problem is there's been a massive cultural influx of people who are used to the down vote as an "I disagree, think this is stupid or don't want to see it" button. It's really only to be used for something that directly violates a particular tribe's rules or the site's policies.
There's talk of altering the functionality of the down vote button, but for now the impetus is on the community at large to address down vote abuse. If you're the chief of or moderate some tribes it would be great to do a sticky about it or include something about the differences in down vote culture on the side bar.
The down vote exists so the community can deal with trolls/spammers and other extremely negative content they don't want to see on the site (hate speech, harassment, abuse, bullying etc), so the down vote serves a definitive purpose.
The problem is there's been a massive cultural influx of people who are used to the down vote as an "I disagree, think this is stupid or don't want to see it" button. It's really only to be used for something that directly violates a particular tribe's rules or the site's policies.
There's talk of altering the functionality of the down vote button, but for now the impetus is on the community at large to address down vote abuse. If you're the chief of or moderate some tribes it would be great to do a sticky about it or include something about the differences in down vote culture on the side bar.