[wccrawford]

Yes it is. You get downvoted here if someone doesn't like your post for any reason whatsoever.

And now that nobody can see any numbers, they can't tell if you've gotten massively upvoted or not, either. In the past, I'm sure they'd have gone 'meh, no votes, don't worry about it' but now they can't/won't take that attitude simply because they don't know. So they downvote. It doesn't cost them anything and they feel better for having tried to silence an opinion or fact they don't like.

Now, I'll be downvoted for being off-topic, and that's a whole 'nother story.