They do, and are usually pretty responsive to questions like this if you send them email at hn@ycombinator.com. I don't know if that's what's happening here, though.

For example, despite having a copy of one of Holzer's books next to my bed, I downvoted your "Sepp [heart]" comment. It's just not the right comment for HN: no context, and emoticons are really frowned on. If instead you'd written a few sentences explaining why you admire him, so that people who don't know who he is could understand, you'd probably have gotten a bunch of upvotes.

I'm sorry if it feels like people are attacking you. It's really not, instead it's really about trying to keep the site as good as it currently is. Almost all comment heavy sites of this age have declined to be unusable by now, but because of the different moderation approach, HN manages to (at least occasionally) still have quality discussion.