I originally submitted this idea in the “How we plan to improve ForumBuildr!” thread, but it didn’t even receive one comment.

Instead of having the idea removed in it’s entirety when it hits -5, how about we move it to a “Recycle Bin” of some sort. Don’t allow -5 ideas to be voted on by the general public, but anyone who wants may wade into the recycle bin to review downvoted ideas. If they like an idea, they can Upvote it (there will be no downvote option). After the downvoted idea receives a threshold amount of Upvotes, it is returned to the general public voting again.

Basically, it preserves the attempt to keep the public from being swamped with idea after idea after idea, but allows for a recovery mechanism to counter chronic down-voters and bad luck.