I guess that my biggest concern is that allowing a newcomer to be repeatedly downvoted and having this effect their karma could be dispiriting to a real person

I guess that my biggest concern is that allowing a newcomer to be repeatedly downvoted and having this effect their karma could be dispiriting to a real person who is trying to participate and learn. I think so far I’m lucky to have only been downvoted a few times. Is it possible for users to have negative karma, and what happens in that event?