Downvoting (which evidently is an absolute figment of our collective imagination) encourages mediocrity in every which way. Not only in the sense that usually only mediocre avatars place in the top ten (with exceptions of course) but also on an individual level.
I notice that the more average the avatar I submit is, the less it is downvoted because it is seen as less of a threat to the downvoters. My better avatars, or the ones that I personally feel are better, are more militantly downvoted. If an avatar of mine is featured in a favourites thread it actually seems to bring out even more downvoters so is actually counterproductive if the goal is to win in the arena. But being put in a favourites thread, to me, is rewarding in and of itself.
Thankfully, I've given up my urge to even place in the arena a long time ago and just recently decided to use it more as a way to take a snapshot in time of my avatars. It is much less maddening this way.
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That all said, the way that I always imagined the arena could be cleansed of those pesky downvoters is a multifaceted operation.
First off, mules should not be allowed to vote. An account should have certain requirements they must meet to be eligible to vote. At least so many posts or something of that nature. This step really goes without saying and should have been implemented ages ago in my opinion.
Next, a warning should appear somewhere within the arena that downvoters will be temporarily banned from the arena. Even if nobody was ever -actually- banned for it, the warning itself may -ever so slightly- serve as a deterrent, much like an empty police car positioned on the side of a road may slow down speeders.
And finally, and this is by far the toughest step, is Gaia admins have to pull their heads out of the sand on downvoting. Whatever admin it was that said downvoting doesn't exist knows the truth, they just didn't want to commit to fixing it. If a substantial portion of the arena-using public all agree that downvoting exists, which is clearly obvious they do and it does, then for an admin to refute that with whatever numbers they want to make up is ludicrous.
A 1 vote should be reserved for the worst of the worst - avatars that are so bad the make your eyes bleed and your head hurt. I know taste is subjective but there are many avatars that would never, ever deserve a 1 vote. Well, guess what..? An admin has the magical powers to see if someone is going around giving decent, good and great avatars 1 votes (or at least I would think that they could). They should then be issued a warning and if they still insist on downvoting then they receive a temporary arena ban. The worst offenders should be permanently banned. This would require an admin to seriously commit to this, at least for a time until the downvoters were sufficiently frightened, so I have no false assumptions that this final step will ever be taken.
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![[ Larceny ]'s avatar](http://a2.cdn.gaiaonline.com/dress-up/avatar/ava/42/65/7add961c146542_flip.png?t=1262070187_6.00_01)
