The "HN Users, please upvote this" banner at the bottom is disconcerting. If HN is becoming a place people are desperate to get their stories voted up on, I fear the quality is going to start decreasing dramatically in the coming months.
I understand your concern, but it's really just a reminder to vote the article up if you enjoyed it. I frequently read good articles and then forget to vote them up because something else catches my attention. I really doubt anyone is swayed to upvote an article they didn't think worthy because of this message. Just the opposite: some hacker types get worked up because they seem to be allergic to promotion of any kind, and thus won't upvote the article, even though they would have otherwise. But I'm betting that the balance of people who upvote because they liked the article AND because they were reminded outweighs the anti-promotion crowd. Either way, I don't think it's a big deal. Sorry if it offended you.
That way after I read the story, even if I go away, the comment page is still open so I can upvote it when I am clearing up later. In that way I rarely if ever forget to upvote a story I liked.
I don't particularly like having my upvote solicited because it makes the thing seem too much like a popularity contest - the people who lobby end up getting more than the equally worthy ones that don't.
Interestingly, in this case, I saw the "please upvote" message, said to myself "ok let's go upvote on the comment page I have open", and still forgot to do it because I started reading comments.
This thread reminded me to do it. :)
That has been there for a while, I thought he might of changed that to what you wrote but as it is now, it is just asking if you like it to upvote it which is how hacker news works. You don't get this if you don't come from hacker news either.