No, I don't see much point in downvoting a node such as snafu's most of the time. I sort nodes by reputation (see User Settings) so I only downvote merely technically incorrect nodes after I've upvoted technically correct nodes and found the incorrect node still listed higher, and not always then.

So, yes, I encourage monks to not downvote a node just because it contains mistakes.

But I'd also like to contrast some of the drama you've written. When I saw your post, snafu's had a rep of -6 and the top of Worst Nodes for the week had a rep of -8. I have a hard time using the term "sky rocket" for numbers of such low magnitude. I don't know how low the rep got, but I don't see how this should be considered such a tragedy that it is likely to make someone foresake PerlMonks.

I also checked that, as I suspected, snafu gained XP every single day. I don't even detect a dip in XP for that day.

Most of us make mistakes and most of us have gotten downvoted for some of them. Should this really be even a big deal?

I think the biggest problem we have with downvoting is downvoting of new members. Not yet having many positive experiences on the site can make the negative experience of negative experience points rather hard to take and surely has driven some people away. Worse, it has been documented to have motivated trollish behavior.

So I'd like to encourage everyone to refrain from downvoting brand new members.

No, I won't discuss any "technical solutions" to this "problem" because, frankly, I'm tired of hearing about "technical solutions" to the "problem" of downvoting. q-: