I suspect that one feature people want from this thread is that all top-level replies/questions are safe from downvoting, so maybe it's worth adding to the rules, if not to the code.
Personally I'm just going with the policy of upvoting every negative Karma question.
This is a thread where people can ask questions that they would ordinarily feel embarrassed for not knowing the answer to. The previous "stupid" questions thread went to over 800 comments in two and a half weeks, so I think it's time for a new one.