I just got my first post that got a net negative evaluation, and there was no mystery to it: I mis-posted and somehow double-posted trying to fix it. I didn't get burned at the stake, and ended up gaining a few experience points, where I might have made twice that if I had posted correctly. The downvotes give an incentive to not screw up and get it right.

In reply to Re^2: Proposal: eliminate down-votes by Aldebaran
in thread Proposal: eliminate down-votes by locked_user sundialsvc4

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