You can track down the discussions from 6 years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2435710 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2435710 Some significan

You can track down the discussions from 6 years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2435710 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2435710 Some significant discussion was here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2434333 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2434333 And here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2434975 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2434975 In short, it has been decided that removing the display of points against comments has reduced some undesirable behavior. The issues are complex, the arguments not entirely convincing, not everyone agrees, but the decision was taken that behavior and comment quality improved.