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Why not leave the reason as a comment instead? I don't really see a need for a new feature.

If someone upvotes your negative comment, the complete thread goes up a bit. Thats the opposite, that your want with a downvote.

What you're describing isn't clear. I assume you meant to say "If someone comments on your negative comment ..." otherwise it appears you're describing how upvotes are generally expected to work.

I expect HNs algos could spot such a comment thread quite easily (thereby avoiding what you've described). That doesn't require a new user feature.

That could be solved by "if user has downvoted the comment they reply to, don't count upvotes for their reply when calculating thread value".

the options are:

i) Just downvote a comment that you think should not be on HN but which is not bad enough to flag

ii) Get involved in a tedious sub-thread bit of bickering with the comment's author about why you think they're wrong

iii) Write a post explaining why you think they're wrong, and have them reply with clarification, and you both end up agreeing and happy.

iii rarely happens. ii happens too often, and i is preferable to ii.

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