Fully agree with this. I've responded and disagreed with a number of active discussions, all backed up with data or sound reasoning & eloquently written only to

Fully agree with this. I've responded and disagreed with a number of active discussions, all backed up with data or sound reasoning & eloquently written only to find that my responses were downvoted. I was always of the understanding that down voting was to discourage things that were against HN policy, comments that lacked content, etc.