i'll answer this, although this probably isn't a good place to have asked. HN is filled with karma-based features. one of those is down-voting. you're not gi

i'll answer this, although this probably isn't a good place to have asked. HN is filled with karma-based features. one of those is down-voting. you're not given access to down-voting comments until you reach a certain level of karma yourself. if you've contributed enough to the community to reach a certain karma score, then you are trusted with more features. see: http://ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html http://ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html