I never said we should eliminate votes, just that comments are more useful than votes alone. If you down vote, leave or upvote a comment that explains why.

The problem with votes on their own is brigading, as in people down vote stuff because it’s unpopular (at least to a very mobilized and motivated group). The vote itself doesn’t explain what’s wrong with the content, only that a lot of people clicked the button.

So I’m in favor of requiring the user to either leave or upvote a comment for the down vote function to count.