I see this as having the unintended side effect of encouraging users to pick the lazy option of downvoting instead of choosing the right option of editing to clarify or better phrase a valuable but poorly written question.

In cases where a question has little quality in its own right, then encouraging downvoting would be a better solution, but for questions that only need a little help, encouraging a downvote is bad for the community.

My other concern is that when a user edits a question, one might have the chance to undo a downvote and spare both the penalty. If this was ever implemented for questions, the downvoter now has no reason to undo his vote, even if the question was appropriately edited to become valuable by the poster. The poster does not deserve to have a permanently binding negative rep simply because there's no reason to undo the negative vote.

I see this as having the unintended side effect of encouraging users to pick the lazy option of downvoting instead of choosing the right option of editing to clarify or better phrase a valuable but poorly written question.

In cases where a question has little quality in its own right, then encouraging downvoting would be a better solution, but for questions that only need a little help, encouraging a downvote is bad for the community.

My other concern is that when a user edits a question, one might have the chance to undo a downvote and spare both the penalty. As this is now implemented for questions, the downvoter now has no reason to undo his vote, even if the question was appropriately edited to become valuable by the poster. The poster does not deserve to have a permanently binding negative rep simply because there's no reason to undo the negative vote.