Well, perhaps I just didn't make my point well enough, but perhaps I should just quote Samuel Johnson: > 'I have found you an argument: but I am > not obli

Well, perhaps I just didn't make my point well enough, but perhaps I should just quote Samuel Johnson: > 'I have found you an argument: but I am > not obliged to find you an understanding.' My experience is that comments that are informative and useful don't get downvoted. Comments that contain purely a witty remark or humorous aside do get downvoted. But those rare comments that are informative and humorous get upvoted lots. The conclusion I've come to, and the model I work with, is that people here appreciate humor as much as anyone else, but that humor alone is discouraged. Take that as you will. It's an empirical observation, and it makes excellent predictions. And you can't downvote me firstly because it's a reply to you, and additionally because you haven't been here long enough and participated enough to earn the karma to exceed the threshold. Generally the karma is correlated with gaining experience of how things work - the karma threshold is there to prevent people from downvoting and flagging inappropriately before they've had the chance to learn how the owner wants things to work around there. Sometimes it's not enough.