While I obviously agree that child porn is unacceptable, who do you propose stops distribution of it?
The FBI? ICANN?
There are always going to be bad things in the world. Maybe we should be trying to focus on the problem at the source (mental health, law enforcement, etc.) and not when it's too late online.
I can't down-vote anyone. I was actually quite disappointed when I first read that you can down-vote above some karma threshold.
Text/turn-based commenting system already ensure that one has to 'wait' for the other to finish their writing. Down-voting only seems like shouting louder and thus seems unnecessary. The only reasonable excuse is SPAM prevention. For that, however, I think that automated flagging system, that won't influence points, would do just fine. I also try to up-vote any opinions that I do not agree with, but that argument their point well.
Long story short, I think down-voting is unnecessary and even potentially harmful. I don't comment often, so it's not going to happen anytime soon, however I plan to not use my down-vote privileges, once I get them, for any reason at all.
(Actually, I think I'll create greasemonkey script to ensure I won't downvote anyone accidentally.)
The FBI? ICANN?
There are always going to be bad things in the world. Maybe we should be trying to focus on the problem at the source (mental health, law enforcement, etc.) and not when it's too late online.