[JimsonYang]

Hn rarely allows people to downvote,only after you become an active member for many years

And im sure this was designed in order to encourage positive discussion

[ranger_danger]

As for the ability to downvote comments, my understanding is that the only requirement is having at least 500 karma.

[Aachen]

As of a few years ago I can confirm that. Don't need (as stated by GP) to be active for years, at least, depending on how much and what/where/when you post. Being the first reasonable-sounding or insider-knowledge comment on a new article that then becomes popular gets you ~1/7th of the way with 2 minutes of effort per attempt; being the first to post from an RSS feed of a here-popular blog can get you +500 points in a single go. Just posting regularly, not doing anything special to farm, will get you there in a few months

[jagged-chisel]

There is no longer a downvote on submissions.

[JimsonYang]

Do you know the reason? Allowing down voting on comments but not on submissions?

[al_borland]

This could be a false memory, but I think it’s the idea that the submission downvotes should be reserved for things that break the rules, and in that case, the post should be flagged instead.

[what]

Shouldn’t that be the case for comments too then?