I was trying to say the same thing in my previous comment above. Thank you for being able to put it this way. I think the downvote button should be reserved for off topic/trolling posts. If you downvote out of disagreement or boredom you risk actually turning that person into a troll later on. The newbie who writes a sincere but boring comment and gets downvoted doesn't learn how to better contribute. He just gets alienated. On the other hand, the newbie who writes a few boring comments, gets no up votes and then finally gets an up vote or two for a good contribution learns more about how to be a better contributor than if he had just gotten downvoted for what may seem to him or her, no reason at all.
I agree with you. It's far better to upvote than downvote. I dunno about others but I am willing to upvote people I disagree with. those who just repeat stock they have been told by others I don't downvote. It's only those who entirely detract from conversation....
I find the downvoting due to disagreement to be amusing here. Sometimes I read downvoted comments just to get a different viewpoint.
What I do find disturbing in this discussion are people with substantially high karma who have been hellbanned. That strikes me as dangerous. I have seen at least 4 hellbanned people on this forum and I would have disagreed with the banning of two of them (the other two were clearly trolls by any definition).
