I think there are some fairly minor functional changes that could be made to HN in order to address this problem. At very least it should not be possible to dow

I think there are some fairly minor functional changes that could be made to HN in order to address this problem. At very least it should not be possible to downvote a comment without replying or upvoting a reply. If it's against the rules, flag it. If it's against your view of the facts, refute it.