I don't think you give CI members enough credit.
Maybe on Fisheaters, but not here (I'd like to think).
I've seen many well-written posts by people I disagree with. Why not encourage your "opponents" when they post something rational, wise, well-thought-out, etc.? Besides, they won't know it was you, so you can go ahead and encourage them :)
On Facebook, you can see who "Liked" a given post. Not so on here.
I think we're intelligent enough to figure it out: "If Raoul gets 4 Likes, that's just his fan club", etc.
The average CathInfo poster can handle a feature like this, I think.
Also, Stevus, I think you're looking at it from a Crisis subforum point of view. Not all posts have anything to do with the Crisis. But even then, there are so many people in the "grey area", I think you'd get plenty of encouragement if you said something that was simply true.
Matthew