The lack of voting is why I still prefer forums over reddit-style sites. Voting, both up and down, stifles discussion and encourages repetative meme comments for upvotes.
I remember a reddit thread from years ago where a guy was trying to deal with a spider infestation in his car and almost every reply was a variation of "kill them with fire" or "it belongs to the spiders now". Many comments were made by different people at the same time with the exact same wording. The guy got almost no serious replies. I don't think that would have happened without the culture created by the voting system.
He's right. Most of the site will go back to normal on the 14th. A 2 day protest only tells them that the users will accept any change they make with only minimal whining.
Maybe you have to buy them from the instance you're using them on?