Why not just remove the vote altogether? So commenters have to say something about why they agree/disagree/feel the need to comment.
And then maybe allow interest groups to form naturally. With a standardised protocol for exchanging messages, so there was no centralised owner of all data. And everyone pays for it implicitly through their ISP fees, like they do for other basic services like email or DNS. Instead of having their data milked, processed and fed back like some grotesque combination of Orwellian fiction and mad cow disease.
That sounds like a much more civilised way to Use the Net. Maybe we could call it something like, I dunno, Usenet....?
I'm mostly at peace with net scores on my replies, though I feel a bit confused when the scores down without explanation. I think it is healthy to some extent to seek validation, but in order for it to be productive, I think we ought to know why people feel the way they do about what we say.
"+1 funny" "-1 Reeee"
stuff, and that'd just add noise to the thread, but not add to the discussion.