Anonymity and votes

We all know that votes determine what threads people get to see and what threads never get a decent chance. The latter one is especially true if you're unlucky with a few early downvotes and the group mentality kicks in.

With votes having so much power in these forums, there seems to be a sketchy balance between said power and the responsibility that should come with it.

In that regard I was wondering why votes are as anonymous as they are. You could argue to prevent retaliation, which in theory is a valid argument, but in all my time observing different forums I've never seen this reach an actual problematic scale in practice. Certainly not enough to warrant the possible benefits for tuning down anonymity a bit.

I've seen several concepts where either positive votes (with the name of the voter) where visible for all or just the op or versions where all votes where shown at the end of a thread/comment.

I just think that voting should be a more conscious choice given the power it yield. Especially since people use votes more like a agree/disagree button than as a good/bad post button.

As a personal sidenote, I never understood the need for anonymity while voting in forums. Sure, once or twice someone dislike my opinions because I disliked theirs earlier but if responsibly stand by your opinion you should not be afraid to make it public. It also adds more weight to the decision to vote on something.

When I say public I naturally mean your username.

Edit: I got to admit, when I wrote this i did not consider the irony of being anonymously downvoted. This made me smile though.