This is where it went right: https://stackoverflow.blog/2009/03/09/the-value-of-downvoting-or-how-hacker-news-gets-it-wrong/ https://stackoverflow.blog/2009/03/

This is where it went right: https://stackoverflow.blog/2009/03/09/the-value-of-downvoting-or-how-hacker-news-gets-it-wrong/ https://stackoverflow.blog/2009/03/09/the-value-of-downvotin... They thought about the system really well. It's based off HN's. And it worked. HN's system still works. Years later, they removed the reputation penalty from downvoting questions. They trusted the community to be mature with this new privilege. And it all went to hell. I don't have the data for this. I found the article above while searching for it. But this is the hypothesis.