I agree 100%, and I've also noted a clear trend toward rampant downvoting the last 2-3 weeks. I've been here for a number of years and have never noticed or co

I agree 100%, and I've also noted a clear trend toward rampant downvoting the last 2-3 weeks. I've been here for a number of years and have never noticed or complained about this type of downvoting issue prior to the past few weeks. Do you have any idea why this is happening? There seem to be a handful of people who have recently obtained the ability to downvote, and who are now downvoting any comment that find distasteful -- even ones that are rational and well-thought out. Most of the well-written downvoted comments are eventually upvoted, but these comments are often almost invisible during times of most exposure. I've actually wanted to try to quantify this, but I can't figure out how to establish the pre-downvoting baseline, particularly since people seem to eventually upvote many of the downvoted comments. Edit: To be clear, I'm not complaining about being downvoted. I've got more than enough karma, even if I cared about that. I'm complaining about lots of other people being downvoted for writing cogent, thoughtful comments. It's not a positive trend.