I disagree. There's a reason why reddit has supplanted traditional forums and imageboards as the premier Internet discussion platform. And that reason is filtering.

Say what you want about redditors, but the density of quality information is much higher on reddit than anywhere else. On a forum, I might have to dig through a 100-page thread to find what I want, or on 4chan, scroll past dozens of bait threads and shit posts before finding something worthwhile. That's a lot of extra time and mental energy.

Downvoting is an integral part of filtering unwanted content. "But, it just means people will censor unpopular opinions!" To which I would respond that this should be proof that people, by and large, have a revealed preference for conformity.