>Can we come to terms that if stories are getting voted up, it means people want these?

Only if you can come to terms that if comments like the parent are getting upvoted it means a large chunk of people don't want these stories?

> See how that works? Don't like it? down vote it? :)

Most users do not have the ability to downvote and so their voice is represented by up-voting the parent.

I can’t downvote stories. Is that even possible?

No, but after you accumulate a "small karma threshold" (that is a direct quote from https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html) you gain a "flag" link on stories. Then you can flag the ones you don't want to see (and then hide them to make them disappear for you if you like).

Flagging stories simply because you don't want to see them is an abuse of the flagging system and will get your privileges revoked - putting a stop to that is why hiding stories exists an alternative.

Stories which are obviously off topic or spam should be flagged, but stories you simply don't care for should just be hidden. If you flag stories because you don't like them, you're making it more difficult for everyone else to participate in that thread.

You can hide them.

You can't vote a story down :P