[gguevaraa]

I'd argue HN shouldn't have a downvote button at all. I can understand when using it to downvote misinformation or comments that break guidelines, however, in discussions it often is used to quietly say "I don't like your opinion, period". Then again, not having a downvote button would probably lead to more flamewars but I'm just speculating.

It's a shame seeing Reddit-like behavior on HN (I understand comparing HN to Reddit is blaspheme).

[0xy]

Nearly 100% of the time I've seen "dead" comments, it's because they said something that goes against the grain. This feature is pretty much pure abuse by power users. Same for downvotes.