A nice feature would be, "negative points because". So that I can learn from it. I have a sneaky feeling it will be related to my opening line.
Im guessing im probably not the first to ask for that feature.
My hunch is that your comment was too short.
Thankfully I enjoy this site for more than my karma record.
Does deleting it remove the lost karma?
Is the idea of negatively voting down a comment. ( Other than the obvious ) To encourage the user to delete it?
Actually I was being facetious. :)
> Does deleting it remove the lost karma?
Not that I can tell. My guess is that 'deleting' a comment actually sets a 'deleted' flag somewhere in the data base rather than actually removing it; but I haven't looked at the code so I'm just speculating.
> Is the idea of negatively voting down a comment ... To encourage the user to delete it?
No. The purpose is to encourage commentary that follows the site's discussion guidelines:
http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html (see section titled "In Comments")
In fact, the window to delete a comment is only open for a set amount of time after posting, after which the site withdraws the option to delete.