I agree and disagree. I think the voting system as a tool to weigh the quality of the questions and responses is a good implementation. That does not (as far as I can tell) require publishing people's scores, ranks etc. I think that's where the toxicity happens.
I faced the same issue for myself on HN...I started obsessing over my very underwhelming score. Here's how I dealt with it:
1. I intentionally forgot my old account password so I wouldn't be able to log into it (there was no way to delete the account on HN at the time...still??)
2. whenever I had the urge to respond (which is maybe 1/100 of what it was when I had an active account), I sign up with a throwaway and make sure I enter a password that I won't remember in 5 minutes.
3. I log out and go back to my life.
I faced the same issue for myself on HN...I started obsessing over my very underwhelming score. Here's how I dealt with it:
1. I intentionally forgot my old account password so I wouldn't be able to log into it (there was no way to delete the account on HN at the time...still??) 2. whenever I had the urge to respond (which is maybe 1/100 of what it was when I had an active account), I sign up with a throwaway and make sure I enter a password that I won't remember in 5 minutes. 3. I log out and go back to my life.