> isn't downvoting supposed to be used to drop conversations that are trolling in nature
I think it's ok to use the up and down arrows to express agreement. Obviously the uparrows aren't only for applauding politeness, so it seems reasonable that the downarrows aren't only for booing rudeness. - Paul Graham[1]
1. That quote is a tad over 7 years old. Does PG still feel that way?
2. Smart people occasionally say dumb things. This may be a case in point.
The way HN makes articles very hard to read when they have only a handful of net negative down votes, whereas a handful of net up votes just moves the article up on the page, indicates that they are not functionally the opposite of each other. A down vote de facto means that you believe that people should not see the comment.
I think it's ok to use the up and down arrows to express agreement. Obviously the uparrows aren't only for applauding politeness, so it seems reasonable that the downarrows aren't only for booing rudeness. - Paul Graham[1]
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171