07:57
it does not make any sense to me what you are writing.
if you are afraid of helping people to improve posts, Stack Overflow might not be for you.
the whole point of Stack Overflow is to build a quality Q/A site, which inherently implies good posts.
but let us consider that for a bit you are right, and see the alternative consequence:-
* shitload of unreasonable downvotes from pretty much anyone who wants to destroy.
* lots of begging comments for reason
* a lot of motivation to do the same
* lots of comments made discussing it
* lots of moderation actions taking place
* useful members of the community stepping away.
* lots of suspensions (handling the issue - when it is caught at all - rather than preventing)
most of those would be solved by my proposal... I considered -2 for downvote, too, but that would not still be significantly better.
(another unexplained downvote as we speak, it is getting above 20 within 2-3 days)
who is downvoting proposals like that to oblivion, is supporting those consequences.
The only drawback of my proposal - AFAICT -, is crappy downvote reason provided, but since downvotes could be bound to downvote reasons, the crappy downvotes could be reversed, too. I cannot possibly imagine a better solution without being too intrusive at the current moment. If you do not want to take even a click for upvoting a downvote reason comment to improve posts, you are not a useful part of the community IMHO.
Note, this is not the same proposal as making the comment mandatory for every single downvote, and that makes a huge difference. And really, I could not find such a proposal just yet. I think people have too much prejudice such as "yikes, it includes giving at least one downvote reason, what a bad idea to improve posts to get a better site and community".
putting effort into reasonable things rather than unreasonable is better, and I do consider the sad consequences of the current system unreasonable, and giving at least one valid downvote reason for a group reasonable and constructive.