I'm new around here. Not acceptable? Seems like something I've seen before.

It is acceptable. Though the wording could be done differently to avoid comments like the one above.

Instead, include the following:

Discuss on Hacker News.

When we discuss something here, upvoting/downvoting plays an essential part is controlling where the conversation heads. So asking for people to upvote is not as positive as inviting them into the discussion.

By the way, welcome. Good post.

Thanks for taking time to explain some of the etiquette. I appreciate it.

I thought your title was fine, the content was dandy, its just that some one was having a bad day. Keep up the useful submissions. BTW - like your site layout, esp the faded sidebar, it makes the content stand out more.

It's absolutely fine. As it's the mechanism for attracting a wider audience to something that benefit is being derived from, reminding them to up-vote the article seems mutually beneficial. You are not forcing anyone to do it.