The ability to up- and downvote posts and comments is useful but the score should not be displayed to the users and you shouldn’t be able to enable it even if you wanted to. This means both, posts made by you as well as by others.
Nobody wants to see their messages get downvoted. This is bad for our mental health as individuals but especially as a group. It’s like walking up to a person on the street, saying “I don’t like you” and then moving on. You’re free to not like (downvote) someone but they don’t need to hear it. If you really want them to know then write a message and explain yourself.
Upvotes on the other hand skews the reality and encourages groupthink. People say what is popular even if they don’t fully buy it themselves and conversely refrain from saying things they truly believe because they then dont get the upvotes and get downvoted instead.
Seeing the scores also primes the reader. When something is heavily upvoted for example you assume it to be true/good instead of using your own judgement to decide.
Yeah god knows I’ve been downvoted. Take it as some introspection. Do they really not like what you’re saying? Was there honestly a reason for it? Is that a community you want to be a part of?
Downvotes are the spice to message boards, people need to know when they’re posting crap that nobody likes. Look at Facebook. No dislikes so everyone thinks their right wing shitty memes are worth posting because 200 people on the platform said it was funny. Same here, if you want to post that, you should know how many people disliked it