Why is flagging used as downvoting tolerated without consequence?

Question

Threads are rejected daily because of flagging, and quite often that is done as a form of downvoting. Today's example is https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27628386 but I see this happening all the time.Sometimes things make sense to be flagged but surely it's not meant to be used just as a downvote? If it is can we just have a downvote button instead so those of us who respect the implied rules can use it to. And if it's not can we have a solution that punishes those who flag a thread which is later approved by a mod or something else?

dang · Accepted Answer

That post was hardly flagged at all. It did set off the flamewar detector. Probably rightly so as it was a classic sensational topic attracting a lot of low-quality comments.

kstenerud · Answer

Flagging is a way to keep flame wars off HN. The actual reasons why people flag a post aren't important; what's important is that without the option to flag, these same people would almost certainly escalate a flame war instead as their passions get the better of them.This can of course be abused by "flagging rings", but it's a small price to pay for a mostly civil and on-topic front page.

aliasEli · Answer

I also sometimes flag submissions when they are essentially duplicates.Is that acceptable behavior?

DarkWiiPlayer · Answer

Usually this happens when a post touches on some sensitive political topics; people then start flagging it for no reason, presumably because they just don't want to see the topic discussed.