@Gasman that's a valid point. I would say that's the one disadvantage - the possibility (or certainty, at least in some small # of cases) - that it will be used carelessly or maliciously. However, I see it as mostly a benefit - it finally acts as a counterbalance to the previous method of allowing the OP to decide what the best solution was - and that being the
only measure there was.
As most other advanced development sites/forums do in fact use a voting system, populated with data from what the larger development community thinks, which to me, makes a LOT more sense than a system where the sole measure of solution-quality is left up to the OP--the very person who didn't know what they were doing (I'm generalizing there) in the first place
To me one of the marks of developer maturity is, if I am the one with the question, having the humility to learn from what larger number of experienced developers think of a particular solution, as being more important than what I think--especially if I am the one who didn't know what to do in the first place & posted the question. The voting system is a tribute to that truth, and encourages newer developers to start thinking in that way, rather than "Hey, it compiles! Ship it" mentality. It is a mark of less maturity when OP's have the mentality "I choose the first thing that someone suggests that seems to work without my computer exploding", (which is usually what less experienced OP's do), and always a good thing when one learns the discipline of researching to reveal several options, then academically choosing the best one.
Let's be honest, if a person is mostly Excel workbooks and one day starts a job on hardcore SQL server environment, they often have a harsh reality met when they get on SQLServerCentral (or whatever), and the previous mentality of "Great, that appears to work, it must be ok" - that standard suddenly is judged to be extremely low & bad, it takes some time to get used to having higher standards...but the voting system helps get them used to it and I think it's a good thing for everyone.
If the voting system were not anonymous, it might improve the quality and care of the action of voting. But if that's not part of the upgrade capabilities, it might not be an option. I mean, to really FULLY develop the concept, you need a more nuanced Reputation system and ties in with Voting privileges, but now I'm just talking too fancy, perhaps. : )