The idea of up and down voting does have it's place in some regards, in that perfect world, but the potential for someone to abuse the down-vote option is quite accessible, and when I read about someone who gets slammed by someone who doesn't like them, it's quite disappointing.

Two Ideas in my mind:

ONE: Has anyone considered removing the down-vote option? Nodes that are worthy, will be up-voted, as deemed, and nodes that should be down-voted, are just left in the dust to languish. That's along the lines of "If you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything."

TWO: If down-voting is deemed required, mayhaps we only allow members of some of the higher order of monks to down-vote. That could eliminate some of the abuse and create a higher level of merit for placed down-votes.

Just a few thoughts.. Regards. -B