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Well, the title of the question should be self-explanatory.

I personally don't find down votes helpful. Reminds me of middle/high school and cliques.

If a question and/or answer is outstanding or even helpful then by all means vote it up. If the converse is true maybe just close and/or delete the question and/or answer.

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  • $\begingroup$ I considered downvoting this question just for fun. $\endgroup$
    – Attack68 Mod
    Feb 3, 2020 at 20:04
  • $\begingroup$ Good to know you can have fun. So, don't hesitate, have fun. $\endgroup$
    – user34971
    Feb 3, 2020 at 20:11

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Not sure that we need them and I don’t think we can get rid of them. I like to keep them for at least three reasons:

  1. They draw attention of moderators to problematic content (although flags might work better)
  2. If an answer is bad, downvotes signal this
  3. If a bad question gets enough downvotes, it will be hidden
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    $\begingroup$ I agree with this. Anything below zero I look for, and answers that are poor can be flagged by downvotes. In fact I have even used downvotes to reduce the upvotes on an answer which is errorneous and others have missed (as well as comment) $\endgroup$
    – Attack68 Mod
    Feb 3, 2020 at 20:03
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    $\begingroup$ I agree some mechanism is needed to indicate which answers/questions are wrong or not properly formulated, but I have seen in principle good questions/answers being down voted too enthusiastically sometimes. I prefer and rely more on the upvotes. But I don't have an alternative for downvotes, perhaps flagging it is better as you mentioned. $\endgroup$
    – user34971
    Feb 3, 2020 at 20:26
  • $\begingroup$ That can happen, unfortunately there is not much you can do except upvote those questions and answers you like. In any case, I’d like to encourage upvoting as it allows more powers for users. $\endgroup$
    – Bob Jansen Mod
    Feb 3, 2020 at 20:28

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