@shadowangelking dude, stop talking, lol.

@CoolSkeleton95 A lot of your points are irrelevant or incorrect. Not to mention you being eerily vocal about this entire situation with your account creation coinciding with my comments a little too closely.... Anyway.

1. Content quality is in the eye of the beholder. A downvote system could easily dissuade others from recognizing a comment that would otherwise be useful.

2. You are conflating downvoting with a reaction to a post. Downvoting is not feedback, it is a vote. I am all for reactions being available per post, but having rep and the negative repercussions from it is effectively handing over admin privileges to the community. The community as a whole can not be trusted with admin rights.

3. An upvote-only system would lead to a positive environment. Like many other platforms that allow users freedoms in thought and expression, a vote system is removed. In its place are reactions that allow users to gauge community feedback without any needless negative repercussions on the poster.

4. We have seen that this doesn't work at all. This point is incorrect. If a user is spamming or trolling, they can be reported to an admin, voting down effectively puts admin privileges in the hands of the community.

5. This has shown to not be the case, and wouldn't be the case anyway. Having a system where people are afraid of getting downvoted means they are encouraged not to to say what they think and will therefore hamper constructive conversation in the favor of not saying something people won't like.

6. This, as before described, is not a good thing. In fact, because of this issue, I'd argue more burden has been placed on admins as a result.

7. This I agree with, it does encourage user engagement, that also seems to be what people are complaining about, so I don't see this as a reason to include.

8. Again, voting a voice out of existence is not an accurate portrayal of a "democratic environment". That would instead include a system that does not punish users for speaking their opinion, but instead allows readers the option to express their feelings in the form of a reaction.

9. Context should be understood by the individual reader, if additional context is necessary, it should be provided by the author, not assigned by people that decide its meaning for all to see via a vote.

I have also referenced the votes on either side, I am disheartened to see some users created hours ago with no posts, comments, rep or even profile views voting on this topic.

@Finn In regards to your YouTube comparison, I agree with you, but YouTube does not penalize the poster for having negative reactions. If that same system was implemented here, it would not prevent mass downvoting, but it would remove the incentive in the sense that the community wouldn't be able to silence the individual because of it. I would support that.

@LizEllie Calling someone "whining" and hating on a post here for something you disagreed with isn't spurring friendly conversation, drop the hostility, then we can have a conversation. Making accusations about people and when and where they post is below adult conversation. Stop using this as your venting platform. Also, while I would appreciate the fact that you initially upvoted some of the posts to "balance out the negatives", It is yet another reason why the rep system is flawed and needs to be reworked. Also, you seem to only recognize one person in this description, even though it was most definitely many people being rude and lacking maturity, sending memes, calling names etc. Those people seem conveniently absent from your description.

TL;DR: The rep system would function better as a system of reactions on a per-comment basis. (Like Facebook) or a simpler up and down reaction (Like YouTube).

@jokoukake lol, who said I was ever mad? No, just disappointed.

@Flippy many replies I get ARE antagonist energy...... Just look at half of what @shadowangelking posts, especially on here where none of that is helpful or wanted. And I get downvoted, lol.

@CoolSkeleton95 If what you say is true "These internet points on a niche part of the internet means nothing" Then why should I stop? It's not that I am being flippant in my responses warranting forceful removal from the platform, it's that because of my persistence that I am getting downvoted. The fact that people downvote me for not leaving something alone while they do the same is the ultimate irony here.
If you didn't want to argue, then don't argue and leave it, but don't downvote me for doing something you are doing as well. I am fine with discussing it as long as it stays on topic, that's why I don't mind continuing. It's not about rep at this point. It is about continuing to show the double standard of some people here.

I can get -4 rep for being nice, and someone can get +5 rep for being a jerk. That is the problem I see. It goes beyond who is actually right and wrong, that stopped being relevant as soon as people started downvoting to silence people.

@shadowangelking lol, you just can't, can you?

@KuroNeko No problem! It's just to try to keep some spam down now that this site is getting more users

@AviCreat So Let me get this straight, You think I am arguing, while there is someone a couple posts up that decides to write a eulogy with seething intent? I didn't even read the post to not spur up another useless debate and somehow I'm STILL the bad guy? At some point you must realize I am not the issue here?

I post a reply in the general help section, and while yes, I got help from admins, I also got belittled by other users of this forum in the HELP SECTION and was forced to defend my side. I haven't even recognized half of the comments made there and yet people get mad when I describe by viewpoint??.....

I'm confused, it's almost as if users here are not afraid to voice their opinions, but as soon as they get a reply they start throwing red cards and saying I'm the argumentative one. It's like they don't expect any form of reply to the things they write.

I get you aren't trying to attack me, what I don't get are the people here that think I am trying to attack them...

@KuroNeko Please try to bump once per post every 24 hours.

@Minako Please try to bump once per post every 24 hours to help prevent spam.

@Melonpie Try to bump once per post every 24 hours to prevent spam

@Minako Careful, people may start downvoting you.

@Sentience I'm not complaining about spam here, I am literally telling you that I am here to help prevent it, and you're biting my head off for it. Bizarre behaviour.

@Lizuap "Understood" DOES NOT mean "I accept the terms of the deal" Please look at the definitions of the two.

You don't see an issue with the system because you haven't been targeted or seen the bad side of it. You can't tell me its a logical system when people can downvote me because I remembered something from my childhood and I lose privileges because of it. You can't tell me the logic behind that because there is none.

You're really justifying the downvoting of innocent comments based on an unrelated "deal" you claim I agreed to. Rubbish.

This reminds me of a beanie baby I had as a child +1

@yoobingbong sorry you get downvoted for trying to help the community

@shadowangelking I'm saying that this sentence "did you figure out that BS that was going on?" Doesn't make sense.

@SpookyVersace Um, I'm right here. I'm flattered you still think of me though!

@yoash Agreed, needing a certain reputation definitely fixes a lot of the issue.