[romanovcode]

AFAIK you need 500 points to unlock "downvote" functionality.

[dotcoma]

That's a urban legend.

I have over 1,800 points, and there's no downvote to be seen.

[Smirnoff]

I believe HN takes a holistic approach and takes other criteria into consideration. My downvote button was activated after my karma reached 500.

[agumonkey]

I see no downvote on articles.

I do see downvote on some comments (not all).

The rules seem subtle.

[kazinator]

Quite consistently: no downvote button on comments more than 24 hours old; no downvote button on comments that are followups to your own comment.

Submissions don't have downvoting, but you can flag them.

[quickthrower2]

The pattern I see is no downvotes to replies to YOUR comment (e.g. this one), and no downvotes once the comment is about 2 days old-ish.

[Tomte]

There is no downvoting for articles, independent of karma, that‘s correct.

[gambiting]

I have 7500 karma and I have downvote for comments, but not for articles. I only can't downvotes comments that are replies to my own comments(which I think is smart and is something that reddit should copy).

[m-p-3]

I have 530 and I see a downvote arrows on comments, which I don't recall seeing before.