No strange settings in play I'm afraid. For example Re: Huffington Post: "Let's Do Away With Anonymous Posting" links to three posts, one of which is Once again ... is it time to get rid of the Anonymous Monk? which in turn links to We should elminate: Anonymous, and DOWN-voting, LanX provides search terms referencing the latter. Re: Huffington Post: "Let's Do Away With Anonymous Posting" links to Re^2: Proposal: eliminate down-votes. Unless you've really messed up your config I can only conclude you're not reading the responses or following their links.