Thanks for clarifying that. I sincerely appreciate your time and attention. However, I am totally confounded by (what appears to me as) the groupthink downvoti

Thanks for clarifying that. I sincerely appreciate your time and attention. However, I am totally confounded by (what appears to me as) the groupthink downvoting going on even now! (that too on my comments that have nothing to do with this thread!!) So how do you (or pg) make sure that silent downvoting is applied justifiably and not just a vindictive or punitive action resulting from superficial disagreement? Or is this a non-issue on HN? And more importantly, are you aware/concerned that such actions (of maybe a few) may make newcomers (like me) see HN as unfriendly at best and nearly tyrannical at worst. (Needless to say, I should have been civil to begin with, but now this reply is on wholly another point.)