As I said on the other thread, I post on another forum that has a full range of these buttons and it works great - but that forum is rather less turbulent than FT. So my opinion is/are:

1. Should there be a negative feedback button? No - I agree that it will be misused

2. Is there a better name than "Informative" button? "Helpful"? "Useful"? "Valuable"? "Thanks"? Informative is a good bet. The aforementioned other forum has informative/useful. It also has a thanks button

3. Should we consider any other positive feedback buttons, such as "Funny"?
Yes - I'd suggest informative, thanks, and a good skills button for nice pics etc, maybe a sympathy button too?

4. Should the vote totals be visible to all or only to the poster? Visible to all

5. Should the handles of voters be visible to all? Visible only to moderators? Visible only to the voter? Visible to nobody? Visible to all - that way it becomes clear who is abusing it

6. Should readers be required to be logged in before the feedback button is enabled?
Yes

7. In order to reduce the risk of a disaster, we are likely recommend trying out this feature in selected forums before rolling it out site-wide. What forums would you choose for a trial? Good idea - maybe start in destination forums and trip reports