[heimatau]

True but I wanted to voice my opinion regarding the submission and the potential dramatic nature that HN could get 'caught up in'. I've been going to HN for about two years now only been a member for a short bit. I want to make my vote. That is all and hopefully communicate with others about it. For the record, I didn't down vote nor flag this but it seems enough of the community did therefore it fell off the front page.

[yawaramin]

A downvote is the voice of your opinion. If you don't have the ability to downvote, well, that should tell you something about whether HN wants your opinion.

[studentrob]

Speaking of the ability to downvote, I've been here over five years and don't have that (@ 81 points). I realize this is correctable and it's on me to comment more, but your comment made me want to add..

I do not participate often because I do not have the ability to contribute my opinion when I want to downvote, and then I get turned off from the discussion thread. Voting is an easy way to keep comment sections concise while allowing everyone to participate. I appreciate concise threads because I'm an engineer and don't want to spend all day rereading the same thoughts in different voices. In short, I want to downvote, I can't, and then I just stop reading and close the thread.

I would be happy if I could just push the down arrow and have it contribute, say, negative .2 points, or some amount scaled according to my current points status.

I doubt anyone cares enough about users on HN to make such a change, but maybe someone will see this and incorporate it on some future comments board. Thanks for reading.