I think you're wrong about a member being able to remove a post. Only Agoracom is able to do that.

Now, as to the thumbs down button, forget it! When we had such a thing, it became no more than a popularity contest and those with multiple aliases made some posters look very unpopular. The thumbs up is also a mistake in my estimation, but we're just stuck with that one.

If you really believe some of the numbers of thumbs up that show up on some posts, you are being a little naive. Many of the guys on these boards have more than one alias.