I don't think I would mind them much if they weren't so overused
Again, you can hide it with adblock. No excuse.
You're just butthurt when people rate your posts negatively. Admit it.
The problem isn't that some people can hide buttons, it's the changes it makes to posting habits and who the site attracts. It's that the codex is less a discussion board and more some kind of social media analogue.
People are less posting to talk about shit with mates but instead trying to make every post maximise ratings. It's obvious.
Buttons have added some kind of social feedback mechanism to the site where, to varying extents,
everyone is less focused on discussion and are instead trying to get more ratings to appease their fucking monkey id.
The main problem with negative buttons is that it gives assholes and butthurt children a means to harass those they deem to have somehow slighted them. Since I have been here, I have noted at least 6 campaigns by several posters against people they don't like. Lambchop or Lady Error or both were the victims of such a campaign, which only stopped when the mods "negotiated" with the prick involved and gave them their Literal Hitler title in return for the asshole stopping his campaign. Atlantico has at least two posters in his sights that he down votes religiously, actually surfing threads for posts he can down vote, regardless of what was being said.
Stalkers who harass others by following them from thread to thread and aggressively attacking them via actual posts can be shown for the idiots they are. Archangel, for example, got so butthurt that he started stalking a poster and was told to fuck off by at least one other poster for being a butthurt bitch.
Negative buttons allow for harassment without the possibility of any recourse, especially given that some of the mods here are biased as hell, as proven by my sig, and have their own little cliques that they will defend to the death. As such,
these buttons are cancer to any forum that tries to foster free speech and open communication. Getting rid of them, even to the point of just brofists, is a good thing for debate and openess. If
DarkUnderlord wishes to bring back buttons, I hope he will only bring back those which are positive (brofist, incline, funny, etc.) or neutral (e.g., agree, disagree, yes, no, etc.), and leave out those that can be abused (e.g., retarded, autism, shit, etc.).