My thinking is that downvotes should be used sparingly, and only with feedback (or some cited reason). If someone with a high-status/”authoritative” viewpoint is being downvoted, even they deserve to know why. If someone is brave enough to reply with criticism, others could upvote that criticism anonymously (upvotes could remain anonymous).
Maybe the voting can remain anonymous, but each downvote has to be tied to an explanation? E.g. each downvote must reference a comment in the post as an explanation. Once one person properly criticizes with a comment, the others can refer to that comment anonymously as the reason for their downvotes. This gives whoever’s been downvoted a chance to know why and a chance to defend themselves.
This seems like an important consideration.
My thinking is that downvotes should be used sparingly, and only with feedback (or some cited reason). If someone with a high-status/”authoritative” viewpoint is being downvoted, even they deserve to know why. If someone is brave enough to reply with criticism, others could upvote that criticism anonymously (upvotes could remain anonymous).
Maybe the voting can remain anonymous, but each downvote has to be tied to an explanation? E.g. each downvote must reference a comment in the post as an explanation. Once one person properly criticizes with a comment, the others can refer to that comment anonymously as the reason for their downvotes. This gives whoever’s been downvoted a chance to know why and a chance to defend themselves.