zlacker

No, the comment downvotes are not "nerfed"-- things get downvoted all the time, and there are often comments with negative karma-- you just haven't been around enough to notice on your cursory glance at the system. (The fact that they are in grey makes them easy to miss, which is part of the point.)

There aren't article downvotes-- but there doesn't seem to be a need for them. The moderators kill stories that are plainly inappropriate, and the ranking algorithm makes it difficult for things to reach the front page without a decent number of upvotes in a short period of time.

My point is: this is an interesting and subtle topic, and it might be in your best interest to study it in some detail, rather than just glancing superficially at what others are doing and forming conclusions thereupon.