zlacker

And this is why HN should remove the downvote! Seriously (here come the downvotes). If you're downvoting this you're doing exactly what this article is complaining about.

> People are changing their behavior to get better scores.

> Social Cooling is a name for the long-term negative side effects of living in a reputation economy

There are plenty of times I don't post something because even though I strongly believe in the idea I know "the crowd" does not so it will just get downvoted.

>>greggm+(OP)
Down-votes should mean "this comment doesn't contribute in good faith," or "this is a distraction".

How something could be well utilized, versus how it is utilized, may be two different things.

>>mrslav+tk
According to Dang, downvotes on HN are for disagreeing with ideas and opinions.

>>greggm+HD
Interesting.

There's an obvious conflict of interest in reducing another user's karma risks their ability to also downvote. (Of course, just because it's imperfect doesn't mean it's a bad system.) If this is the intended usage then perhaps it would be fair to expand downvoting rights to other users?