1. Upvote/downvote is often misused as "Agree / Disagree" and "I like you / I don't like you" rather than "Positive contribution, I learned somehing / negative

1. Upvote/downvote is often misused as "Agree / Disagree" and "I like you / I don't like you" rather than "Positive contribution, I learned somehing / negative contribution, spam, ad-hominem, rude, etc." HN is actually mostly good about this, but this effect is quite shamefully pronounced on places like reddit, and is in part what gives the label redditor its negative connotations. See /r/politics for the most jarring misuses of upvote/downvote. 2. Downvotes in particular are too cheap. I think it'd be cool if a downvote were accompanied and weighted by a comment: for each downvote, you are prompted to also leave a comment explaining yourself. If your explanation is insufficient and downvoted too much, your downvote is discounted. You'd still get ideological misuse per point #1, but it might improve things.