Except that's not a downvoted comment or an old version as far as I can tell; it...

Except that's not a downvoted comment or an old version as far as I can tell; it's the text of a Ask HN/Show HN thing. I never really understood why those are colored gray, either.

Edit: Ok, apparently it's supposed to discourage using HN as a blog (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2807183). I still think it's odd.