A large point of voting is to direct attention. One of many reasons I don’t think negative votes need to be explained is that writing a comment, even a negative comment, calls attention to what I’m commenting on, which is usually the opposite of my goal in downvoting.
Humm I see… not sure if it totally serves the purpose though. For instance, when I see a comment with a large number of downvotes, I’m much more likely to read it than a comment with a relatively now number of upvotes. So: within certain bounds, I guess.
A large point of voting is to direct attention. One of many reasons I don’t think negative votes need to be explained is that writing a comment, even a negative comment, calls attention to what I’m commenting on, which is usually the opposite of my goal in downvoting.
Humm I see… not sure if it totally serves the purpose though. For instance, when I see a comment with a large number of downvotes, I’m much more likely to read it than a comment with a relatively now number of upvotes. So: within certain bounds, I guess.