I guess the effect here is that some people may be voting to what they think the comment is worth. So if you already have 50 point for a comment they would be t

I guess the effect here is that some people may be voting to what they think the comment is worth. So if you already have 50 point for a comment they would be thinking yeah that seems about right for the content provided in that comment I'll leave it without voting. Whereas without the points this effect goes away and the same person is likely to up vote you. Not that I have spent a great deal of time reading comments since the change but I think I may be voting less, I guess there might be an effect there where subconsciously I am less likely to vote because I don't know what kind of an impact the vote is going to make. Also with a thread like this one with so many comments, the votes can help guide you in what are the key takeaways without having to read the whole thing. In the same way the high voted items can give you some of the best stuff without having to spend hours trawling through many items. I guess in that way the changes effect those that want to get a quick hacker news fix around other activities more than someone who has a few hours to really go in depth on topics.