I agree, however the fear of downvotes (however irrational that fear may or may not be in an online forum) does cause me to stop and think of how many different

I agree, however the fear of downvotes (however irrational that fear may or may not be in an online forum) does cause me to stop and think of how many different ways a comment can be perceived. The result is that if a comment contains anything negative, I'll reword it as much as possible so that it can be expressed without causing a feeling of negativity in the reader. Which, by the way, has made me a better communicator overall, and has really helped out in my career. Edit: I'd also like to see a voting system where people get rewarded for upvoting, and have to make a sacrifice to downvote. For example, if you upvote a comment that others also upvote, you get positive karma, and negative votes can cost you karma.