How to describe "punishing" some text by making it less visible?

For example, downvoted answers on StackExchange.

More-or-less normal variant seems to be "to gray out", but it's seems limited to gray colour (not to small font, pictures, strike-through or other methods of making the text visibly less important)...

Answers I like so far: (in short)

• obscure
• fade/bleach/blanch/gray out/strike though (i.e. the specific effect)
• [be]dim
• deemphasize
• mute
• demote

Solution 1:

How about "obscure"? "v. To make dim or indistinct", "Not capable of being clearly seen, on account of deficient illumination." (Reference: Wordnik.)

Solution 2:

The commonly used word is

moderate

Which carries a contextual meaning to depreciate the item in question relative to its peers/etc. The frame of your question is about "punishing" a conversational contribution - and such "punishment" requires authoritative privileges. These privileges define the role of the Moderator in a conversation.

However, 'to moderate' is not a universal 'downvote,' as moderating can raise the level of attention. Regardless, the common expression for downvoting (and similar) is to moderate.

A commonly related concept is

muting

as in, conversation muting. "Masking" is also used in a similar way.

Where these are words that, in their native contexts (audio, print/art, painting), have an all-or-nothing meaning (e.g. "mute" means "off") – in the context of web media and conversational streams, the words can be used with many shades of meaning. This position is nouveau, and you probably won't find it in a dictionary of any sort (besides EL&U!)

As most are alluding to, the more common figure of speech is given for the emphasizing / highlighting focus of top-ranked elements.

Solution 3:

Reduce font size, dim, grey out, camouflage (or blend), strike through, increase transparency...

Generically speaking, I would say these are all ways to deemphasize text, or to make text less prominent.

prominent: easy to see or notice; conspicuous

Solution 4:

• penalize (when down-voted)
• obscure
• conceal
• hide (elementary but works surprisingly well)
• bedim (fits with graying-out)
• block
• flag (technical, usually for reporting abuse or attracting moderator attention)