&#62; If you are afraid to defend a view because your average karma on some website will fall below a certain level, then you are not the type of person that should be defending views.<p>You must be new here :)<p>&#62; Say what you believe in. Karma, comment average is unimportant.<p>Absolutely, but the general case will, at least as long as the leaderboard exists, be the opposite.<p>&#62; I'm here to talk, not to vote.<p>Voting on articles is useful because it gives good stuff more attention. Voting on comments is useful to get rid of the trolls, and it allows people that have limited time to spend to browse HN articles fast to get the good stuff.