Article Downvotes should be removed - Yay or Nay?

[Norion]

Ryuu96 said:

Norion said:

I'd prefer keeping downvotes but tweaking the system since I don't like the idea of only having positive votes. For forum post likes I enjoy them and it does make me feel at least a bit more encouraged to post though it's possible the overall impact when taking into account everyone is negative.

I didn't really consider that receiving an upvote on a forum comment could encourage more posting.

So it seems like

+ Upvotes could encourage more comments as it's nice to know your comments are appreciated
+ Upvotes stop the spam of "Agreed" posts - Although technically, this is against the rules anyway.
-  Upvotes could cause a decline in detailed "Agreed" responses as there's no reason to think out a response when you can just slap a like on the post.

I've done the 3rd a lot...It has made me a bit lazier, I don't know about everyone else. There's been multiple times in this very thread where I've almost just slapped a like on a comment and moved on but for the purposes of this thread I've told myself I should respond, I wouldn't really do that in other threads, I'll be like "That's a good post, I agree with it, maybe I should write a response...Nah I'll just like it and go do something else"

But if the former two are stronger than it's worth keeping, I wouldn't touch the forum upvotes at this stage as it needs a more detailed breakdown.

I don't think I do the 3rd though I can why it's tempting to do so. Either way it is a small thing and even if it's overall negative it's for sure not as bad as letting users rate a post with various things including a "dumb" rating which is a system I've seen in use before.