I do not intend that the reasons for down-voting should be debated here. However, in my view it *is* pertinent to consider the fact that nodes can be down-voted both in accordance with and not in accordance with the guidelines that are published. Unfortunately, those are not always followed and some posts accrue a slew of downvotes based on something else, such as, as mentioned earlier, antipathy towards the poster.
Therefore I am opposed to any automated system that would determine, in the absence of consideration by a human Monk, whether a post should or should not be displayed to viewers and/or search engines, based solely on down-votes cast.
update: added clarification
The way forward always starts with a minimal test.
