From what I can tell the point is sometimes to discredit and warn people who someone thinks are straying close to topics that the someone doesn't like. Bleh, too tired for clear grammar. Anyway. If so, this is incredibly dangerous; it can easily provoke escalation.
Could this be a quiet way for people to express ideological tribalism that is suppressed by the "no mind killers" taboo (which I find one of the most refreshing things about LW)? The hypothetical LWer or random reader enraged enough to register, see something that isn't politics but in their mind (perhaps mistakenly) clearly attacks some tribal attire they are attached to, so that this is therefore clearly wrong and that it is incredible no one is calling this guy out, and guess it falls to him to fix this clear bias by taking a sledge hammer at some of the comment's author's other writings. This is indeed dangerous, since if a fraction of people think others are employing such tactics they may start their own campaigns to try and "balance" this.
Do you have any idea of what these topics could be? The one or two times I've had this happen I haven't been too sure about the triggers. If you think you have a good idea, but don't wish to inflame the situation by paining a bullseye on anyone please PM me.
Don't be stupid.
Eh, is that directed at me?
Eh, is that directed at me?
No no! Sorry, 'twas directed at humans in general. I'm sort of scatter-brained at the moment. My apologies.
People who go back and downvote every post or comment a Less Wrong user has ever made, please, stop doing that. It's a clever way to pull information cascades in your direction but it is clearly an abuse of the content filtering system. It's also highly dishonorable. If you truly must use such tactics then downvoting a few of your enemy's top level posts is much less evil; your enemy loses the karma and takes the hint without your severely biasing the public perception of Less Wrong's discourse.
(I just lost over 200 karma in a few minutes and that'll probably continue for awhile. This happens to me every few weeks. Edit: I mean it's been happening every few weeks for a few months for a total of only three or four. Between 400 and 700 karma lost total I think? I don't mean to overstate the problem.)