The reason for this is based on some different cases but almost similar:
- nazist party was elected, therefore the likes is not an absolute metric of good
- in a KKK forum a racist post will receive a lot of likes possibly few flags or none
- loving friends cannot be a metric to prevent that they being flagged
It is bare clear that the forum is not the only communication channel here. There are also IRC meetings - another wasteful of time, under my point of view - in which people build a false sense of friendship creating their own narrative.
How good is our Thor god? How bad are its enemies?
We share/agree about the answers, then we are friends!
That’s a kindergarten not a community! 
Solution?
All of this was pretty clear also in the ancient Greek in which people (citizens, not all) are used to meet under three circumstances:
- for doing business (market place);
- to have fun together (theater, music, alcool and orgies);
- to decide with democracy (those who do, decide).
You might consider the #3 the most important but it was the least important. Democratic decisions were often related to war (no negotiation) or peace (negotiation ok). Also in this case who were going in war are going to decide, all the others were not allowed to interfere in that decision.
Therefore: who do business decide how to do business, who partecipate to the orgy decide how to deal with other participates, who write the code decide what code write or not.
What are you looking for?
Here there is no business, there is no orgies and no one is producing code (or decent code).
Why the hell you are so focused in democracy and a supposed civil-way for opinion exchange? To talk about is pink color a trend? Or better to go with a lime green?
In fact, what are you secretly looking for is a way/tool to win an argument.
A tool that seems decent and civil but let you win also when you are totally wrong and messy.
I am sorry, never worked in that way and this is the reason because we never stop to do war in one way or another.
Panem et circensis
Moreover, the old way in which some people met in a place and kill each others with swords were the best way to settle down an issue (war) and also the less destructive one. That place took the name of Circus and the fighters gladiators, nowadays football players.
Panem et Circensis. When the bread is missing, the circus does not work either! 
Therefore, unless you are going to put a lot of bread on the table, there is no any need of a tool to distribute it or to help us to decide how to distribute it.
Are you going to put a lot of bread on the table or not? 