The Facebook thing shows the absurdity of trying to tie people's hands - in practice the "haha" reaction has become the downvote, only now it's spiteful mockery

The Facebook thing shows the absurdity of trying to tie people's hands - in practice the "haha" reaction has become the downvote, only now it's spiteful mockery. Gee, that was an improvement. There are interventions you can make on the interface to improve civility of discourse, but they're more complicated than just trying to crudely stifle anger.