Most definitely it does effect the HN users. Every site that uses the upvotes mechanism as a signal to the group about what they should think or focus on is producing both positive and negative consequences. It's used not because the good outweighs the bad but because it's implemented by programmers who find it easy to implement. If you asked a social psycologist/socialogist/ecologist or an educator with experience in building learning environments a very different system would be in place. We need these kind of people influencing these feedback loop not just the well intentioned but misguided programmer.

I have bought this up multiple times before. There are a lot of impressionable minds around here being exposed to lot of half baked/frustrated/misguided thoughts. Many times the upvotes mechanism just amplifies and reinforces these thoughts.