Ask HN: Why downvote? I honestly do not get it.

What is the point of downvoting someone?

I apologize to anyone who may take offense to the following, but I find it very barbaric.

Most people, I believe, downvote because they do not agree with someone's opinion. I cannot see how that is different than someone throwing a stone at another person just because they do not agree with them.

Maybe web communities are still primitive, or maybe there is a real flaw in current commenting/rating systems.

If there were some consequences to downvoting, i.e. we knew who downvoted whom, what do you think would be the result?

Voting is probably the easiest way to quickly express your (dis/ap)proval with little effort, especially when the comment is so obviously insightful or stupid.

Your analogy is a bit extreme, and I wouldn't mind people knowing whom I up/downvoted.

I always find opinions like these to be illuminating whenever people claim that people don't care about karma, as it's obviously just a silly number in some computer running this website. As it turns out, some people find losing just 1 point to be indistinguishable from throwing a rock at the person.

For what it's worth, the downvote is for the comment, not the poster. It influences a sorting algorithm that shapes the way people read as well as serves as a signal for how the community feels about a given post. The value of this signal is debatable, but that's the point.

When I personally down-vote your comment, it's because I think you're wrong or your post is of zero or negative value (spam, noise, etc), and it really has nothing to do with your worth as a person (or any desire to hurt you).

Ask the submitter: Why don't you get a blog?

Edit: OK, I will answer the question. People downmod to get people to convince themselves to go away. Imagine I don't like your viewpoint, and you place value on imaginary points I can take from you. I take those points, you get upset, and you stop posting stuff I disagree with.

That's all there is to it; reinforcing groupthink.

Similarly upmods encourage people to keep submitting. Knowing that people like your work encourages you to make more.

This is a very HN-focused point. No reason he can't just post it directly, in this case.