You're opening the door to a whole lot of "Me too!", "What he said!" and similar meaningless responses. I personally don't post that often, primarily because I'm new enough at Perl programming to a) not feel that confident about my replies and b)not want to make a bloody fool of myself more often that I already do.

However, I do exercise my voting privileges. I might read a post and ++ it for any number of reasons. It might be a really sweet bit of programming. It might be funny. It might be totally daft but thought provoking. Regardless, I don't want to be forced to write a response before I can register an opinion.

I do believe that your idea comes from an honest desire to improve the site but the method your proposing just won't work. You can't instill a moral code or sense of community by fiat. Attempts to do that invariable prove completely unworkable and are either shoved aside and ignored or end up damaging, if not killing, the very thing they were trying to improve and protect.

Hopefully what will come out of your suggestion will be a discussion that first determines if the problem you're trying to fix actually exists and, if it does, a consensus decision that will serve the spirit of this place without instituting unnecessary rules.

Jack