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Comment by RossM | Hacker News Reader

From the FAQ:

How is a user's karma calculated?

Roughly, the number of upvotes on their submissions and comments, minus the number of downvotes. (The numbers won't exactly match up, because some votes aren't counted to prevent various types of abuse.)

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I'm asking about a particular post. If a post has got say 10 points, how many people should have upvoted it?

Roughly ten more people than downvoted it.

I thought we were discussing a "top-level" post rather than a comment. Do super-high-karma people get to downvote posts?

Yes. you need a minimum of 500 karma to downvote posts or comments.

Not quite, I have >500 karma but only see downvote links for comments. I've never come across a post with a negative score.

Exactly. Comments can be down voted; articles/links cannot.

450 karma to down vote comments.

I'm unsure of the value to down-vote links, its >930 based on the fact that I can't and I have 930 karma.

As 30thElement said:

    There are no down arrows on submissions. They only appear
    on comments after users reach a certain karma threshold.

From the FAQ:

Why don't I see down arrows?

There are no down arrows on submissions. They only appear on comments after users reach a certain karma threshold.

No, there is no downvote for posts. Flagging is supposed to take the place of that, but only for posts that violate the rules. From the FAQ

  There are no down arrows on submissions. They only appear
  on comments after users reach a certain karma threshold.

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