I wonder what the best solution is. This definitely does seem to be a trend that's increased recently, possibly as a result of points no longer being displayed for each post, and possibly as a result of an increasingly larger community whose new members resemble the reddit crowd more than the Silicon Valley crowd.
I don't like the idea of having a cost to downvoting. People shouldn't have to make the choice between receiving a small punishment for legitimately trying to improve the forum or letting others do it. Perhaps get rid of a downvote option altogether and make flag more visible? Or get rid of downvote and don't make flag more visible? Maybe require a comment to go along with flag? I definitely think the visual symmetry in the up and down voting gives people the impression that the downvote's function is disagreement. Then again, I seem to recall pg saying that he was okay with the downvote being used that way and wasn't afraid of HN becoming http://www.collegehumor.com/video/3980096/we-didnt-start-the...
I don't like the idea of having a cost to downvoting. People shouldn't have to make the choice between receiving a small punishment for legitimately trying to improve the forum or letting others do it. Perhaps get rid of a downvote option altogether and make flag more visible? Or get rid of downvote and don't make flag more visible? Maybe require a comment to go along with flag? I definitely think the visual symmetry in the up and down voting gives people the impression that the downvote's function is disagreement. Then again, I seem to recall pg saying that he was okay with the downvote being used that way and wasn't afraid of HN becoming http://www.collegehumor.com/video/3980096/we-didnt-start-the...