Viewing last 25 versions of post by The Smiling Pony in topic I would pay $25 a month to support this site if they remove the downvote button

Downvotes exist because a good deal of fandom content isn't "art" and is just memes and edits, which don't violate any rules, but are often... not all that worthy of attention. This site's predecessor had downvotes as a way for some users (the ones who could actually load a page in under two minutes) to moderate the worth of such content given the lack of moderation, and the concept of "users moderating bad memes" was carried over here.


 
An attempt was made 3-4 years ago to replace downvotes with personal image hiding; the results were a boatload of pants shat over freedom of speech or whatever and the volunteers running this place just didn't want to deal with all the screaming and whining and insults. Given ==\~recent events\~== I very much doubt that those in the decision making chairs will want to try any changes with the potential to have more shitty-pissies.



 
 
As a side note, don't use money or donations, either giving or withholding, as a tool to institute change. I can assure you that it will not only not work.