[tzs]

> Why would someone down vote an opinion that they are okay with Java?

Paul Graham once said [1]:

  I think it's ok to use the up and down
  arrows to express agreement. Obviously
  the uparrows aren't only for applauding
  politeness, so it seems reasonable that
  the downarrows aren't only for booing
  rudeness.

  It only becomes abuse when people resort
  to karma bombing: downvoting a lot of
  comments by one user without reading
  them in order to subtract maximum karma.
  Fortunately we now have several levels
  of software to protect against that.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171

Many have taken this to mean that down voting a comment when they disagree with the opinion therein, no matter how well it argues that opinion and no matter how much it contributes to the conversation, is fine.

[baldfat]

This is the number one reason why I looked for a different place and was hoping lobst.er would have taken off.

The down vote causes the comment to be dimmed and seen as a rejection to the comment. It is very frustrating when the top right side is your name and your "Hacker News Points" so I don't get why the down vote if you disagree. A down vote kills the conversation.