Interesting point, and not what I was assuming at all. I simply believe they don't put enough thought into it (and clearly the NTSB agrees). Downvotes should b

Interesting point, and not what I was assuming at all. I simply believe they don't put enough thought into it (and clearly the NTSB agrees). Downvotes should be about bad form, not about "I don't agree with you". HN used to be about the former, but now is much more the latter, and it is a poorer community because of it. HN isn't the first online tech-news community, and every single one of these communities that uses an up/downvote mechanism to self-regulate comment quality have gone the same way: as an increasing number of users gain voting privileges, voting replaces debate. When that happens, the community becomes a simple echo-chamber for the "established" truth of that community. This increasingly keeps away quality commenters, strengthening the effect. When voting, especially downvoting, is a frictionless, costless action, the quality of varied discourse will sooner or later die.