Downvoting is a way to express oneself without or in addition to a written comment. More importantly, it is a way to control the culture of the site. If you e

Downvoting is a way to express oneself without or in addition to a written comment. More importantly, it is a way to control the culture of the site. If you end up with a negative score it means both: 1) people thought you should be downmodded, and 2) not enough people disagreed with the first set of people. I say all that to express how irrelevant it is in a larger context unless you are a Karma Whore (I will likely get downmodded now.) Express yourself. Period. Most downmodded comments contribute to conversation I think. And that is really the point of commenting, not to whore yourself out for more points.