I don't find his comments out of line and deserving a downvote. My question is what purpose do downvotes serve other than allowing frustrated readers to retalia

I don't find his comments out of line and deserving a downvote. My question is what purpose do downvotes serve other than allowing frustrated readers to retaliate against a "bad" post? > a lot of my comments get upvoted when they're out-of-line with the majority Your arguments have to be better. Simply stating differing opinion and anecdotal evidence (not always invalid) will often result in a downvote. I would find it more useful if the topic were explored, rather than censored. ---- Bummer, this story got censored. I think this is a good discussion. Obviously there are some unhappy people. I wonder if there are any sites that do not have downvotes. Honestly, the lack of a downvote button really attracted me to Hacker News. It's a shame it's being liberally used. * Sorry about the double post. I was not able to create a new post.