I often upvote grey comments for that reason. I have the impression that posts are more heavily downvoted now that the comment score is hidden. It was rare to

I often upvote grey comments for that reason. I have the impression that posts are more heavily downvoted now that the comment score is hidden. It was rare to see comments become unreadable as it is now the case. I suppose that seeing the score allowed users to consider a given score as a sufficient punishment, and refrained from burying others deeper. Maybe you could display the score when it's negative (that info is already conveyed by the shade of the text, but it is not quantitative)... or maybe cap the negative scale? Some newbies make mistakes out of cluelessness, and by the time someone tells them to read the rules their total karma is way below zero. That's pretty harsh.