Thumbs up / Thumbs down already being abused

Well that didn't take long. I was watching a thread I had not yet posted in. It had about 15 posts. A couple of posts had thumbs up ratings, but no thumbs down. I refreshed a few minutes later and someone had posted a new response. It also appears that they gave a thumbs down to every other message in the thread. Their own message is the only one without a thumbs-down, and all other meaages got a thumbs down at about the same time this new message appeared. My hope is that positive ratings will help the better responses rise to the top of the pile, but I can also see people getting into thumbs-down wars.

Personally, when I give a thumbs down to a post, I will also write a reply that states why I gave a thumbs down.