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Thank you.

Why are people down-voting for asking a simple question? Is THAT what "25 karma" gives them?

This community seems to be getting a little too overcrowded with self-important downvoters. Sad, really. I used to like it here.

There is so incredibly much I could contribute here, but now I ask "why bother" if the community begins its inevitable slide (thanks, Tech Crunch!) into Diggland and Reddithood?

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Comments get downvoted if they don't add to the discussion, and particularly if they're off topic from the thread they're on. Asking how posts get negative value is a fine thing to do. Create a Ask YC post and someone will gladly answer. Asking this otherwise reasonable question in the wrong place however can lead to downvoting.

Everyone makes mistakes occasionally and gets downvoted (sometimes it's unfortunate but you can just get downvoted for expressing an unpopular opinion). But hopefully in the long run you bring positive value to the site and your comments are voted up more often than down.

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