The current reaction system creates a significant feedback disparity; agreement takes a single press of the like emoji while a dissent requires a full post response.
A feature request might have 50 likes but may have 200 silent dissenters who don’t want to enter the toxic fray that is all too common. Measuring only enthusiasm is grossly unfair to the opposition and does not reflect the balance of public opinion; the result is a false consensus.
A common scream from many existing FR’s is “everybody supports this request, why isn’t implemented?”. A more balanced reaction system would reduce this and just might spur healthy discourse.
A simple “disagree” or “not helpful” reaction would provide balance without enabling toxicity.
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I would disagree with this post. Look at Reddit and YouTube. Their version of dislike/downvote/disagree votes are typically what helped create that “toxic” fray. Reddit and YouTube’s own research have found that they aren’t used to express disagreement or even bad information so much as they’re used to simply say “I dislike the person making this post.”
Heck, YouTube found the Dislike option to be so otherwise useless that they basically turned it into a placebo button that still, on its own, is counted as engagement for the video.
The forum has survived plenty long enough without it. It’s also a small- and slow-enough place and with active-enough moderation that, if there is a “toxic fray”, a quick click on the Report button will typically get the hostile comment removed pretty quick. No need to change a working formula.