But it also intimidates folks into not sharing some really good stuff.
There's that, but there's also an element that's more "frustrates" than "intimidates" I think. Case in point: it's VERY rare in my experience, that one can mention Ayn Rand in any kind of favorable light here without getting downvoted to hell. Have that happen a few times, and one is probably going to start to develop a "well, my opinions aren't welcome here" response and quit sharing. Never mind that the person who mentions Rand quite possibly also likes many, many other things and would like to talk about them. And I'm reasonably sure this phenomenon isn't limited to Rand. I just noticed that, because I'm one of the people who does like Rand - and has been consistently down-voted to hell for it. :-)
There's that, but there's also an element that's more "frustrates" than "intimidates" I think. Case in point: it's VERY rare in my experience, that one can mention Ayn Rand in any kind of favorable light here without getting downvoted to hell. Have that happen a few times, and one is probably going to start to develop a "well, my opinions aren't welcome here" response and quit sharing. Never mind that the person who mentions Rand quite possibly also likes many, many other things and would like to talk about them. And I'm reasonably sure this phenomenon isn't limited to Rand. I just noticed that, because I'm one of the people who does like Rand - and has been consistently down-voted to hell for it. :-)