I think that using the Boston Bombing Witch Hunt to justify your point is a bit extreme and a bad example. The people doing the witch hunting were not going to be dissuaded if a post about stopping been upvoted to the top. None of that was about up or downvotes. They made their own threads; they weren't open to discussion, and that was the problem. A sub-commnity had formed within reddit with new thresholds for what was deserving of up and downvotes. FallenWalnut has a really well laid out example of why the absence of downvotes wouldn't even have solved this problem. This was about individuals doing the wrong thing, not a failure of the voting system.
All you've done is reference a huge, terrible incident that, although it happened on reddit, has no weight in proving your specific point here.
I think it's a good example of the culture. You are absolutely correct that it wouldn't have/didn't change anyone's mind or derailed the witch hunt, but it's an excellent example of how the hive mind works. There are many subs where even expressing a contrary opinion or raising the "wrong" question results in massive downvotes, and in some cases, mod bans. While it may come from a minority of site users, it's a very active minority in those particular subs.
Why doesn't Facebook have a dislike button, even though its users have been requesting one for several years now? Why doesn't Google+ have a -1 button next to the +1 button? I think the reason is very simple. You don't want your users to have a negative experience. Posting something and having it receive a couple of dozen downvotes is a negative experience.
If somebody wants to disapprove of something, there's a very simple (and much more constructive) way to do it: post a comment! This also forces the person who disapproves to engage in a dialog.
I think that using the Boston Bombing Witch Hunt to justify your point is a bit extreme and a bad example. The people doing the witch hunting were not going to be dissuaded if a post about stopping been upvoted to the top. None of that was about up or downvotes. They made their own threads; they weren't open to discussion, and that was the problem. A sub-commnity had formed within reddit with new thresholds for what was deserving of up and downvotes. FallenWalnut has a really well laid out example of why the absence of downvotes wouldn't even have solved this problem. This was about individuals doing the wrong thing, not a failure of the voting system.
All you've done is reference a huge, terrible incident that, although it happened on reddit, has no weight in proving your specific point here.
I think it's a good example of the culture. You are absolutely correct that it wouldn't have/didn't change anyone's mind or derailed the witch hunt, but it's an excellent example of how the hive mind works. There are many subs where even expressing a contrary opinion or raising the "wrong" question results in massive downvotes, and in some cases, mod bans. While it may come from a minority of site users, it's a very active minority in those particular subs.
Why doesn't Facebook have a dislike button, even though its users have been requesting one for several years now? Why doesn't Google+ have a -1 button next to the +1 button? I think the reason is very simple. You don't want your users to have a negative experience. Posting something and having it receive a couple of dozen downvotes is a negative experience.
If somebody wants to disapprove of something, there's a very simple (and much more constructive) way to do it: post a comment! This also forces the person who disapproves to engage in a dialog.