There’s always going to be a difference between “what criteria for downvoting would make everyone better off” and “what criteria do people actually use”. People will downvote to shut up opposing views, not because that’s a good reason to downvote, but because dinging someone the −1 karma for an opposing view is more effective than not doing so and nobody’s going to stop them.
There’s always going to be a difference between “what criteria for downvoting would make everyone better off” and “what criteria do people actually use”. People will downvote to shut up opposing views, not because that’s a good reason to downvote, but because dinging someone the −1 karma for an opposing view is more effective than not doing so and nobody’s going to stop them.