I completely agree that the downmod thing has gotten a bit out of hand as of late (Disclaimer: I'm the author of the first comment listed as an example). The up

I completely agree that the downmod thing has gotten a bit out of hand as of late (Disclaimer: I'm the author of the first comment listed as an example). The up and down votes are not meant to be a sign of your personal support or distaste for a comment. The modification proposed here is questionable to me though. If a comment is flagged, does it automatically fade? What if its flagged multiple times? Is there a way to un-flag it? This whole issue could lead to a whole other discussion on the karma system, but I think we really do need to come up with a better way to treat the negative votes.