Plenty of people downvote comments because of disagreement. It means that conversations that are contentious disappear...so the subjects popular with the high karma crowd end up being the ones that are seen over and over again.

I'm not trying to be too negative here...I'm just saying. There are days when the number of Go stories is just crazy. It reminds me of the Linux advocacy of the 90's where people seem to think they are doing a great good by posting them.

I realize that it could also just be a very visible indicator of the overall zeitgeist of people using the site. Something tells me this isn't the case, though.