Well spoken, Nemo. Well stated.
Personally, I would like to move with the times and use the reaction system across the entire forums,
This is legitimately the worst thing I've ever read.
I wish there was a reaction based system in these forums so I could show my dislike on ideas like reaction based system in these forums without actually trying to argue my point with words.
What professionalism? Forum sites was build for this and like this. We do it everyday in Tom's Hardware and surprise surprise no one killed yet.
From my POV, that just sounds like scared conservatism.
Or, people would take more time on their posts because there would be a rain of downvotes if they flamed, spammed etc.which usually means a lot more 'spam'