Comment by combatentropy

It's another clever feature of Hacker News, in my book.

Perhaps YCombinator omitted the downvote button because it can be abused. For example, if there is a story that is bad news for a certain company, that company could organize a downvoting campaign to hide it. But the upvote button can also be manipulated, as you say.

However, which is worse? (A) To write a silly story and have it rightfully downvoted into obscurity, or (B) To write a silly story, have it upvoted into the limelight, but be littered with comments that expose its flaws.

I think that as long as I remember that just because a story is on the front page doesn't mean it's right, then Hacker News has a nicely curated set of moderation rules.