Removing downvoting seems a solid plan. When I put actual thought into my ideas, then see them get dropped in favor of people upvoting idiocy like “OH EM GEE necrophilisa joke guiz!” it’s pretty discouraging.

All the same, how about a minimum number of daily upvotes needed to survive the day? That’d prevent the flooding. If that’s not harsh enough, cap the number of times a user can +1vote each day. Say you have 5 upvotes to use each day. Pbum until you find your 5, then you’re done. Meanwhile, your forum needs at least say, 10 upvotes to be around tomorrow and stay in the running. If people can’t just upvote **** like there’s no tomorrow, 5 votes will be a little harder to get.

Makes sense, no?