The Guidelines don't support any of this theorizing. Reddit's "reddiquette" has a rule like the one you suggest for HN. I think the fact that this rule has fa

The Guidelines don't support any of this theorizing. Reddit's "reddiquette" has a rule like the one you suggest for HN. I think the fact that this rule has failed to show up in the published Guidelines, after a decade or so, even through Guidelines edits, is (weak) evidence that HN does not use Reddit's rule. As far as I can tell, downvotes are for whatever you want them to be for. I mean, I mostly only use my downvotes according to the rule you propose. But I think your claim that this is the "meaning" of downvotes is unsupported by evidence. And, from the Guidelines: Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. As such, one thing I do downvote for: unconstructive complaining about downvotes.