>The rationale behind your 'upside' is that it potentially improves the voter's social status. That's my primary reason, yes. However, I also believe that if

>The rationale behind your 'upside' is that it potentially improves the voter's social status. That's my primary reason, yes. However, I also believe that if people can see you upvote their posts even while you post a dissenting comment, you will see better conversations for the reasons I outlined in my original post; you are showing you respect the other person and his point, even though you may disagree.