I suggest the stake based upvote & downvote system on Steem should be as impersonal as possible.
One-way Steem can shift the mindset from personal to impersonal stake voting is with a name-change of the current staked based voting system we know as "upvote" & "downvote."
We can change the current system names from:
Upvote to "Reward" (with quick grandparent proof description in a popup when hovered over)
Downvote to "Redistribute" (with a recycle icon that you click)
Putting a positive spin on something that can easily be perceived as bad can help the sentiment on Steem. Some Steemians do not understand that downvotes cause rewards to go back into the reward pool, make it unmistakable that they get redistributed back to the reward pool to be recycled for future reward distribution.
The term downvotes, when combined with reward disagreement, can create a powerful misconception that brings the maximum pain to the end-user. Most people take staked weighted downvotes as the downvoters think "I do not like you, and I am taking your money!".
With icons labeled, Reward & Redistribute, with adequate grandparent level explanation, it is possible to separate the stigma of emotional downvoting and make it less personal and more business.
Culturally, we equate the term downvote to mean "personally not to like something"; I do not downvote on Steem because I dislike people's work, I downvote because of reward pool abuse. When you think about it, the downvote feature is something we use to police the platform, not express distaste.
Downvotes = Investment Protection
The second part of this post is something I think Steem can benefit from to further remove emotion when distributing inflation to authors by giving users a clear separate emotional outlet. - The separate emotional outlet for users could be non-stake based upvotes and downvotes (IE. likes/dislikes on YouTube.) - We can rename upvote & downvote to "Like & Dislike."
I know people will say, "bots can just manipulate the like/dislike system." And sure, they can, and they can and do all the time on every social network there is. When bots manipulate likes upwards, people can still dislike and vice-versa. Vote manipulation in this day and age is easy to spot and backfires if the goal was to bring credibility to the post.
On Steem some actions cost resource credits. New stake-less accounts get treated like second-hand citizens without even the basic rights granted to them by all other sites. Give resourceless accounts (thinking light wallets in the future) as many features as possible by giving them access to all the free actions available on the Steem blockchain. Give people the legacy experience as a base entry.
As an example, in the future someone with a light wallet strongly disagrees with a post, well they can at least give a dislike, and that gives them some feeling of vindication. It is all anyone gets on any other site. I look at it as a funnel; if a user is mad and they go to retaliate, they see a dislike button, that would be their first course of action.
Have any suggestions other than Reward & Redistribute? Leave a comment with your opinion below.