No, downvotes makes the incentive to conform stronger because it makes people risk averse, so it increases the potential for hivemind. A quality filter for the quality filter would be some kind of arbitration, which people currently do in an ad hoc fashion and often prematurely by complaining about the downvotes in an edit.
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"allowing only upvotes reinforces a hive mind mentality"
And allowing downvotes fixes this?
The best forum I take part in doesn't have upvotes. Chronology and individual filters only.
Forums usually have strict content moderation for that reason. That does not scale at all (Dunbar's number), so very few startups would attempt it.
Upvotes are a quality filter, and downvotes are a quality filter for the quality filter.
No, downvotes makes the incentive to conform stronger because it makes people risk averse, so it increases the potential for hivemind. A quality filter for the quality filter would be some kind of arbitration, which people currently do in an ad hoc fashion and often prematurely by complaining about the downvotes in an edit.