For the die-hard computer geeks out there, if you use GNUS on
[X]Emacs, the 'gnus-summary-lower-score function (assigned to
the L key in the article buffer) will do this in a few key strokes;
something like L-f-s-t-ret will lower the score of the original post
and all followups.

That and the automatic scoring which I think is on by default in GNUS,
means I now see 1/10 of the total articles on Usenet and it's now a
pleasure to read and pick through. No more nutty rants by the idiotic
JH nor the followups by his redneck fanboys. No mxsmanic posts of any
kind. Some new new case pops up? No programming needed, just c-k the
post and after a couple of times they quietly drop from sight thanks
to the auto-scoring.
--
"Evolution is God's way of issuing upgrades."