at the bottom of the page there is guidelines and FAQ

they also give good indication on how to handle topics that don't tickle your personal preferences (for "interesting" or "curious"): silently ignore them

especially if interest is the guidance on downvoting and flagging. the sorting is not according to your personal preferences, as in "social media", but according to the hn hive think. thus negative voting indicates "anti-curious", "anti-conversation", not dislike.