-4 is enough to shut down a conversation? What a terrible idea. How do we get rid of this mechanism?

I don't like it either, but Eliezer seems convinced that long conversations descending from posts by trolls (or, more often, sincere but badly mindkilled people) are destructive enough to site culture that they're worth going to great lengths to punish.

So, if you want the feature gone, he's the guy to talk to. Ideally in person.