[scruffups]

My other comment on this thread followed others in congratulating the author. It specifically said "Bravo!" and guess what? It got down voted.

So the explanation may be that it is useless input but believe me it is not useless to the author to have people congratulate them for the fruit of their labor. It's a human desire to be recognized by others. How is it not a positive comment? Why down-vote something as benign and empathic as saying congratulations? So force a comment on each down-vote and things might get a little bit better because at least we'll know it's not just random acts of hostility and that the down-voter has a rational reason for it, at least in their mind.