Downvoting wasn't the problem. Things that prevented voting were the problems.
Stickies, vote hiding, vote "munging", shadowbans for dissenters.
Look at the responses to earlier Reddit admin "amusing" announcements (before said vote-preventions went into effect) for the system working as intended.
It let the shills downvote any reasonable post or argument into oblivion until only their views were being seen.
This is a false dichotomy. It's not black&white "disable downvotes" or "let the shills downvote any reasonable post or argument into oblivion until only their views were being seen.".
You can control for the latter without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
I'd argue strongly otherwise.
Downvoting wasn't the problem. Things that prevented voting were the problems.
Stickies, vote hiding, vote "munging", shadowbans for dissenters.
Look at the responses to earlier Reddit admin "amusing" announcements (before said vote-preventions went into effect) for the system working as intended.
This is a false dichotomy. It's not black&white "disable downvotes" or "let the shills downvote any reasonable post or argument into oblivion until only their views were being seen.".
You can control for the latter without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.