[callahad]

I'm just a random reader and member of the community, and I haven't consciously down-voted you in the past, but I absolutely down-voted and flagged this comment, and the one in response to Knieveltech.

I don't know who you are, I don't have anything against you, and I haven't voted either way on your main comment, but I really don't think such name-calling and vitriol are appropriate or have any place in a community I would want to be a part of. I don't think such comments add to the discussion, or are in line with the guidelines linked in the site's footer. So I've voted according.

Hopefully that helps explain where some of the down-votes are coming from.

[HilbertSpace]

I was attacked, downvoted, for my main comment, and then defended myself. This is NOT nearly the first time for such. Usually the result of the downvote is to send my comment to the end of the thread where it is effectively lost, which is clearly the intention of the MOD.

Why a MOD? Because only a small fraction of the users can downvote, and users instead of the MOD attacking me personally write rebuttals. So far I have not a single rebuttal to any of the content of my original post. I did a great service to some lost CS profs -- outlined for them how to publish and, then, got attacked by a MOD.

Then I defended myself. You found my defense offensive. It was, but not nearly as much as that of the attack of the MOD.

[drivebyacct2]

I've never ever heard of a "mod" affecting comments or somehow modifying the karma of a given comment. I'm sure that PG would not give a mod that power (though, he does alone hell-bans which I find in poor taste considering how many legitimate comments I've seen dead-on-arrival).