Simple: I never downvote for disagreement. If somebody's wrong, people will tell him (or I will). If he's wrong repeatedly you can tell by looking at how dee

Simple: I never downvote for disagreement. If somebody's wrong, people will tell him (or I will). If he's wrong repeatedly you can tell by looking at how deep he's getting in a thread. Downvotes, in my opinion, are to indicate things that don't belong here. Usually because of tone, sometimes because it's a one-line throwaway comment that doesn't add anything or is a joke (that also doesn't add anything). I think this is sort of the consensus way of downvoting here. Sure, there are people just arrived from other forums with different norms who still downvote for disagreement, but they're the minority and they tend to change their ways once they realize it. The end result is that if you find yourself being downvoted, it's usually because of the way you made your point rather than the point itself. The exception being certain contentious topics that to be honest don't belong here anyway (global warming debate, apple vs. android, etc.) that are more likely to attract the newly arrived "downvote for disagreement" crowd.