Down-voting without responding: intellectual cowardice?

UPDATE: You can now see who voted up or down by hovering over the thumbs up/down icon. Hope this helps.

I would do away with down votes. I would never down vote someone just because I disagreed with them.

The only reason I could think of down voting someone is if they were conducting a personal attack on someone or they posted something that was purely prejudice or purposely insulting to any race, creed, ethnicity, etc. And in this case, I would expect an Administrator to delete the posting anyways.

Disagreements in opinions is a good thing, it makes us think of all aspects of a issue/ topic from other than our own perceptive (which is limited by our own experiences).

As a Leader, when I was in charge of a mission, I was most concerned when everyone agreed with my plan with no issues or recommendations. I knew I was never as smart as the group as a whole and definitely did not have the combined experience of the whole group. It would make me feel like they either did not care or they were setting me up for failure. I always pushed for recommendations for changes etc. based on what time would allow.

Its not so much that people are crying about a down vote but a common courtesy amongst professionals that we offer an explanation as to why. Much like a person complaining about or identifying a problem but not offering a solution. We're all adults and thus should be able to convey or disagreement without bashing the individual or said individuals wearing their feelings on their sleeve.

<p>My observation is that it takes very little effort for anyone to find fault without justification. To simply vote something down without offering some insight as to voter's objection offers insight into either their work ethic (too lazy to provide a reasonable counter-point) or their intellectual capacity (it's wrong because I said it's wrong mentality). Either way, voting down without explanation doesn't do anything to spur on thoughtful discussion or provide an opportunity to incorporate new or different points of view.</p><p><br></p><p>A leader will consider any and all topics thoroughly before rendering an opinion and then will have a logical argument to support that opinion.&nbsp; Leaders may disagree, but they will provide explanations, stats, logical arguments, examples, etc. to support their position. People who are not leader just stand on the sidelines and yell at the team on the field.</p>

Sir, you need to get a girlfriend or donate half of that big brain to science;)<br>

I can see your point, Sir. This isn't facebook. It's supposed to be a professional place where we exchange ideas and opinions in an adult manner.
On the other hand, I'm not sure I would qualify it as cowardice. It might be something more akin to laziness.

When I first joined RP I voted down a comment before I understood the system.

I think you should have some negative for voting something down. You should lose points, type an explanation or have the number of negative votes you have listed on your profile.

I think that a person should not be able to down vote with out giving a reason.

Capt Day, I'm afraid I'll have to disagree with you. There is nothing "intellectual" about not being able to back up a down vote with a comment. It's simply COWARDICE, not intellectual cowardice.

I've down voted and not responded. I've down voted and had the person I down voted ask me why and I responded with what I thought was a good response. I don't think we need to explain ourselves every time, maybe a down vote will make the original poster stop to think. But I do believe if a response is asked for, then respond.