[khedoros1]

Things that are off-topic and illegal aren't the only ones that get downvoted, though. HN is unusual in the sense that it's discouraged to downvote things you dislike; that's the effective status quo in most other communities. In your proposed system, you'll have some people side-voting those comments, and you're going to have others downvoting them.

[Jcowell]

it’s not discouraged. people flag and downvote things they don’t like as well. the difference is that newcomers don’t have the ability to until they get a certain level of Karma.

[khedoros1]

Hmm. I thought that was one of the things listed in the posting guidelines. I was mistaken.