I commented on the original thread about the decision that I thought downvotes for community members only would be a good solution, and I'm very glad to see it under consideration. I have voted in the poll accordingly.

Meanwhile, I do appreciate the viewpoint expressed so eloquently by @WooBoy@lemmynsfw.com, and want to express appreciation for their contribution to the community and empathy for their experience. As a user who subscribes to communities that interest me, pretty much keeps to my 'Subscribed' feed, votes on posts, and sometimes comments on posts or participates in discussion, but who hasn't really posted any OC, my interest is of course in expressing my satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a post, and marking it such that it no longer appears in my feed when I have 'Show Read Posts' unselected in my preferences.

I bring up the latter point because I'd ask, IF you ultimately make the decision NOT to make downvotes available to community members, would it be possible to institute some ability to hide a specific post (rather than block a user), or mark a post as read. This could also be a workable alternative.

Sincere thanks for being proactive, transparent, and willing to consider community feedback.