It was supposed to be used in situations that were borderline abuse and to be considered a milder version of "report abuse". The OP would qualify because it seems to be more of a flame.

Instead, people were using the down-vote for things like "I don't like that poster" or "Their point is well-thought out but I don't like it, DOWNVOTE". So you'd have solid posts that just had a negative vibe that would have a bunch of up-votes, but also a bunch of down-votes.