If you completely ignore the votes life on HN is much better. Remember that most people live in a cargo cult reality and don't even know it or care to recognize it. It is far easier for a person to align with their surroundings than to stick their head out and suggest thoughts or ideas that migh separate them from the surrounding culture and ideology.

History is full of examples of people who see the world differently only to be ridiculed (or worst) and later proven to be correct. From Copernicus to Columbus, the Personal Computer and FedEx. Ideas that were ridiculed and rejected by "smart folks" only to alter society in a major way once proven to be correct.

This, I feel, is what isn't captured by these silly voting systems. The HN version of fora would have burned Copernicus at the stake for daring to suggest that the Earth was not the center of the universe. Similarly, here, today, the voting system does not capture innovative thinking but rather cargo cult. Yes, it generally helps bubble good/correct posts to the surface but it also serves to squash down anything that does not align with majority rule. Which means that the audience is subjected to a positive feedback loop fed by cargo cult mentality rather than allowing the injection of a variety of viewpoints for intelligent independent evaluation.

Again, ignore the voting system. Don't let it get to you. It isn't designed to promote alternative thinking at all, that much is evident.