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Yup. 501. Remember. With great power comes great responsibility.

Indeed - compared with the ability to speak freely, the ability to downvote is not much of a privilege.

the real question is if it goes away if you're downvoted.

I believe it does, but don't have any evidence to back it up. If itp volunteers, we could test by down voting his comments :)

Exactly... This effect might reinforce 'upvote'-grabbing behavior, to either not lose the ability, or regain downvote if lost.

Upvote-grabbing behavior is already rampant here, just as with any forum with point tallies attached to comments. Proof: all of the "edit: why the downvotes?" comments.

Council of 300

https://xkcd.com/1224/