HN Suggestion: Virtual downvotes

I understand why it requires some karma to downvote something, but I've been a long-time reader on HN, and still don't have the karma needed.

I think this is a shame, because I do care about the quality of the site, and I'd love to be able to downvote stuff.

In any case, you're ruling out a data vector here-- wouldn't it be interesting to gather how users with little karma would vote, if they could?

I'm suggesting that people with low karma be able to click a down-arrow without any tangible effect, other than to let them feel better (and possibly hide the item from their own view). Over the long term, you might be able to use the voting pattern's similarity with the high-karma population in order to grant real votes, and the crossover point wouldn't be broadcast.