It's all about getting rid of the noise. Because there's nothing worse than seeing 7,000 comments on a Reddit article and 99.7% of them being complete garbage.

It's all about getting rid of the noise. Because there's nothing worse than seeing 7,000 comments on a Reddit article and 99.7% of them being complete garbage. That's discouraging to a community. Why even bother posting when someone's lame joke is 347 votes ahead of yours. So I'm a complete asshole on HN. When I see jokes or one liners I downvote away. I feel guilty and sympathize for the poster but... I like the noise free environment too much. So I wipe away the tears and downvote away.