I think downvoting should be different from flagging inappropriate posts.
I am quite annoyed by people who for the sake of posting are putting up an image with some brief banal text.
This was a wasted click to see if there was some deep thoughts being shared by someone.
These are the posts that are not really flagging material but should earn a few down votes
I agree with you on that. Down voting can be used to indicate you think the content is not useful. Where as flagging should be for spam or abuse. The concern with down voting is that it could lead to censorship of opinions that people dont agree with. Need to find some way to make it clear that down voting is not disagreeing but rather indiciating low value to all parties.
Very well put.