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Why should someone be forced to explain why they vote the way they do?

Flags are NOT votes — which is part of the problem, HN treats flags as votes and users are abusing it. Down voting is not even possible for submissions unless you flag a submission. Down votes on comments is not possible unless you have 500 rep, but only 31 Karma, they can flag submissions — which is a super downvote and frequently abused, and Dang for sure is aware of this.

Source for rep required to downvote or flag on HN:

- https://github.com/minimaxir/hacker-news-undocumented/blob/m...

If "Flags are NOT votes" ... but "HN treats flags as votes"

...then flags ARE votes, friend :)

Feel free to explain disconnect between downvotes requiring 500 rep - but flagging only requiring 31 rep.

You can dislike the fact flags are votes

But it doesn't change the fact that they are, mate :)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com