Down Votes! Why does it feel like a counseling statement?

Those obtuse thumbs can mean almost anything without the explanation.

Counseling statements were designed to document substandard performance, but more importantly, they were supposed to help mentor a troop and improve those deficiencies. Instead they de-evolved into a "force shaping tool." As a defense counsel I saw too many times where a supervisor would finally get tired of a troop and put them into "hell week" where every single thing they did that irritated the supervisor would go into an LOC to provide documentation in anticipation of an admin separation. This was never the purpose. Some of our best performers have been troops who had trouble fitting in at first. These are the ones who question things (usually to better understand the purpose) which drives a poor supervisor crazy because might not be able to effectively communicate the answers to such questions and take questions as an assault on their authority. The don't recognize that blind adherence without any kind of question can lead to some very bad outcomes, especially if it is a weak/poor leader who subscribes to a "cult of personality" leadership style.
If people want to cast a down vote, they really should consider including a brief explanation of the "why" to help the person receiving the vote understand. Like "I voted down because you made personal, unwarranted and unsupported attacks on the character of X. You should stick to the issue at hand." This is constructive criticism that will help foster better communications. We owe this professional training and guidance to our peers.

I know this because I got 5 LORs and multiple LOCs as a first term airman, in my first assignment. In today's USAF I would have been admin separated, yet once I got my stuff together I went on to win "Base Airman of the Month" at that same base. People change.

I think that I've only been voted "Down" on one comment that I've posted on RallyPoint. It didn't really bother me except that I was curious to know what the person thought. Seriously, I'd really like to know. It's not as though I had said that I was "For" or "Against" something.

If seems that voting up or down is like saying "Yes" or "No" which doesn't make a whole lot of sense unless the person is asking something that can be logically answered that way.

I think that any up or down vote should be accompanied by a comment unless they are asked to merely vote up or down on a topic. It seems only fair...