i think we need Cracked-style articles back. desperately. or like, a guy doing a weird thing and writing a piece on it. sites like those are declining faster than the glaciers.
Make the UI require a label/reason for a vote, like Slashdot.
Slashdot doesn’t have a downvote. It has labels like “off-topic” and “flamebait” that serve to lower a comment’s score. It’s possible to misuse them of course, but that requires an active decision to do so; the obvious action is to pick a label honestly.