If I have something important to say, I comment, otherwise, I mostly consume. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't be able to download a comment I don't agree with or find offensive.
If I ever make a site with community comment contributions, and include upvoting, I would just leave downvoting out of the picture entirely. Etiher you do not agree and do nothing, you like a post and upvote it, or you report a comment in violation of the site rules. Downvoting just means dissenting against those you do not agree with rather than having a conversation about it.
You should be replying to the comments you dislike and state why, rather than just think hitting a down arrow is going to right all the wrongs with their statement.
It is the most infuriating thing to make a statement, have it downvoted, but have nobody say or argue why or against your points. The whole point of forums is discussion, and downvoting (especially when it outright removes comments) defeats the purpose.
I only comment when I feel like I can really contribute. I don't know what the threshold is for down voting, but I must still not be at it.
I don't know how much it matters to me though - it definitely makes me feel like more of an outsider to the community, but I don't know that it's a permission I really need.
As far as stories, sometimes you can post too early and another will follow with a similar story and it runs up, submit what falls under the guidelines that you truly want to see discussed and you might hit karma gold.
Myself, my wish list for HN is a feature I can flag stories for my later review; a save feature like reddit
Are you aware that upvoting a story saves it? You can access 'saved stories' via your profile. On one hand, you might argue that overloading the 'upvote' function isn't quite what you want, but the counter argument is that if a story seems interesting enough for you to want to read lead, the upvote's probably deserved.
>I'm sometimes asked how historically marginalized users can help shape the HN community when the karma threshold for down voting inappropriate comments is high. It's a fair question, and we are experimenting with lowering the downvoting threshold.