>"I think downmodding comments that people disagree with needs to be discouraged."

i completely agree. it might explain this in the guidelines, but it needs to be written right where people evaluate. maybe the first time someone votes they get a pop-up with the vote guidelines, kind of like sudo. it pops again once every two months as a reminder.

it's really hard not to see voting as opinion tallying rather than comment goodness. that's what voting is used for everywhere else.