Why downvote? I honestly do not get it. 
iamelgringo: The possibility of downvotes creates an element of risk in posting a comment.  Without that element of risk the only deterrent to trolling or violating community standards is deleting or banning by the moderators.  Moderating a site like this is an awful lot of work.  The down vote arrow allows the community to police itself.It's certainly not perfect, people have been down voted to oblivion.  Pg has put in safeguards so people can only get down voted 5-10 points. I think that it's helped keep the community on track.People take their karma very seriously for some reason.  Notice the amount of angry posts when someone gets downvoted. :)