The problem is, downvoting means that each user has more power. If you want one article to hit the front - if you are willing to downvote every article that isn't that one article - then you suddenly have twice the moving power. At best, that dilutes the votes of the people who try to be very sparing in upvoting. At worst, it brings in a group of like-minded people who start to edge people out.
Example: every time an Apple story is posted, somebody complains not about the post but about their hatred for Apple. If those people could downvote Apple stories, I think some of them would. And if we have more anti-Apple people than pro-Apple people here, then suddenly the Apple folk have their voice muted. That's not an optimal solution.
Good point. With that in mind, I think the ability to downvote articles should be an earned privilege based on a period of high-quality content submission.
That's a good metric, actually. Base it on only submissions or something similar, so that the people with influence are the ones who are active doing things like that? Might be tricky to code, but I like the idea.
Example: every time an Apple story is posted, somebody complains not about the post but about their hatred for Apple. If those people could downvote Apple stories, I think some of them would. And if we have more anti-Apple people than pro-Apple people here, then suddenly the Apple folk have their voice muted. That's not an optimal solution.