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From a practical point of view, at 500 karma you get the ability to downvote comments. They may have changed this number by now though. Otherwise, it's a marke
by tripzilch 14y ago
From a practical point of view, at 500 karma you get the ability to downvote comments. They may have changed this number by now though.
Otherwise, it's a marker signifying what people like that you wrote, and (for downvotes) what people consider unacceptable on HN. That's the main signal I get/give from downvotes: "I wish you hadn't posted that".