First time I've heard of what the "+1" meant, but I agree with you--our forum could use an injection of civility. It feels significantly different than when I first joined...over 25 years ago and I don't feel nearly as connected to the other users (or the site, for that matter.)
Still, we can all use some positive affirmation at times.
I forget where I saw that, but that is what i've always understood the "+1" to mean. A lot of websites allow you to "UpVote" comments you like, and I've always thought it would be a nice feature for Free Republic to have, but I expect it would take a lot of rewriting of the code to do it, and it probably just isn't worth it to go to that much trouble.
So +1 is the best we can do right now.
Still, we can all use some positive affirmation at times.
Especially with so much of the world crashing around us right now.