Strange Things Happen When Design Meets Usage ..

It is fun to thought-experiment with incentives and dis-incentives .. a couple of days ago I posted the suggestion that Downvoting should cost a person SP - the more powerful the blow you wish to deliver the greater the hit you must take .. with the revenue of which should be re-distributed to all. Did not generate much interest! :-)

Rethunkin It!

The problem people seem to have with down-votes is the disproportionate amount of harm that can be done, without consequence, to smaller members when targeted by those in much higher weight classes. There is no reason not to use such power unless there are real potential consequences to misuse.

SOLUTION!?

The downvote could still operate in the same way it does now until you reach a relatively low ceiling of reputation and STEEMPower, so that bots can not be used to abuse the system. Above this ceiling, the amount of power one has would be irrelevant - no matter who takes the action it would not matter how heavy-a-hitter one might be, the damage done would hit a maximum leveld. To further prevent abuse perhaps a person would be limited to a small # of down-votes per 24 hr cycle, or the inability to downvote another user more than once in a particular time-frame.

Benefit?

Greater numbers would be required to cause real damage, meaning there must be a justified reason for something to be targeted, something we would have to make a 'case for', to attract participation in such an action.