Vouching never seems to work for me. I used to use it when I thought a comment had been unfairly flagged even when I disagreed with it (as in this case), and I suspect I've had my vouching ability shadow-disabled for diverging from the mean.

Regular downvoting is bad enough, but flagging is effectively an unassailable super-downvote.

I've been using HN for a decade, I thought it was free of the disease of downvoting.

I wish that were so but it fairly obviously isn't. Just jump on a thread about politics or vaccination or any other cultural issue.

Yes, vouching gets shadow disabled if you go against the abusive hive mind that is condoned here.

FWIW, I don’t suspect my vouching is disabled. The comment has been un-flagged now. The churn in this thread is fairly interesting though. I can honestly see why it might be enough of a debate trigger that it’s best from a moderation point of view if the thread was harder to find and comment on.