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I'm not sure what the threshold is for being able to downvote stories, but it's pretty high.

Those that have that power have a great deal more control of the front page than those of us that don't.

We're relegated to trying to exercise our power through snarky comments and distracting meta conversations about the voting system.

Articles aren't down voted. They're flagged. I'm not certain the threshold for that.

The other way to get rid of content you don't want or want to bury, vote up content you do want.

The final way is to hide it. The article will disappear for a day or two for you.

There is no downvote on HN. There's a "flag" button, but using it as a downvote is an abuse and can get your flag privileges silently removed.