I think a big problem here is that the voting system should be killed, or modified so that everyone could see the voters. For some reason, a number of people seem to run around as anonymous vigilantes casting anonymous votes in more or less ridiculous ways. Maybe a secret dream to be a great wizard capable of casting real spells?

I don't know how many negative votes I have seen in this forum just for the simple reason that the reader has not agreed in a debate. There is a huge difference between posting an objective claim that is wrong and get the post voted 'answer is wrong' and to write a subjective post (an oppinion) in a debate and getting 'answer is wrong' or 'message not useful'.

Seems like a number of 7-year-olds are running around abusing the anonymity. It should be quite obvious that unprovoked use of negative votes are rude. And not only rude, but rude in a way where the receiver can't respond back since he/she isn't allowed to know who did cast the vote or the reason behind the vote.

How clever was it to give a negative vote 'Looks like homework' on a post where the OP spent the two first sentences explicitly telling that it was related to a school assignment? It almost seems that the voter felt proud to be able to correctly identify it as school work. Wow! Alas, it also indicates that the voter failed to notice the following sentence "Everyone is welcome here--8052 professionals, students, hobbyists, etc." from page 11 of http://www.8052.com/users/jonled/noob.pdf

Why would a student be forbidden to ask questions. What is important is if a student wants someone else to do their home work, or if the student wants to debate possible solutions or ask questions. That is a huge difference. Just as it makes a huge difference if a teacher sees his/her students discuss their projects or if he sees one student handing over a solution to a significant part of the assignment to another student.

How will a student be allowed to learn, if just visiting a forum is "looks like homework"? I can't for the life of me believe that our host wanted the vote used in that way. I can't for the life of me belive that our host wanted votes to be used as weapons.