Yes, somebody can just upvote 10 random things to get 10 negative 'credits.'
How are they going to use all 10 on one article? Both arrows disappear after the first vote. And, the old articles can't be voted down any more. Finally, if the person decides to wait for somebody to post 9 more comments over the next 2 weeks or however frequently the user posts (so they can downvote them) the comment will still be current and the rest of the YC community will vote up the comment back to a positive number. It seems like a good solution to me.
Comments
Yes, somebody can just upvote 10 random things to get 10 negative 'credits.'
How are they going to use all 10 on one article? Both arrows disappear after the first vote. And, the old articles can't be voted down any more. Finally, if the person decides to wait for somebody to post 9 more comments over the next 2 weeks or however frequently the user posts (so they can downvote them) the comment will still be current and the rest of the YC community will vote up the comment back to a positive number. It seems like a good solution to me.