This is an example of a comment that should be downvoted.
Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?
51–60 of 101 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?
#52I downvote anything I don't like and I upvote what I do like. Most of the time I'm upvoting someone who already made basically the same comment I was going to make. No point in saying the same thing again in another comment, just upvote. If someone says the opposite of what I was going to say, I downvote. I never understood people acting like downvoting is some huge crime or being downvoted is some great slight. It's…
The reason people frown upon the downvote is because we explicitly don't want people using it to express dislike. Rather, we should use it as a way for the community to self-police content that is not in line with our values as a community. Although it's unavoidable to some extent, I really don't want HN to develop a strong filter bubble where only things I agree with get shown. I want to see dissenting opinions and…
> we explicitly don't want people using it to express dislike
I was led to believe that the opposite was true:
Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?
#53The one thing I don't like is when comments become "dead", which I understand happens after too many downvotes. The reason I dislike this, is that besides obviously racist or otherwise inappropriate comments, there are regularly normal seeming comments that are dead. Now, there may be reasons for this I am just not privy to, but I feel it hinders discussion when some opinions that don't seem problematic are just sile…
When you see a dead comment that you feel shouldn't be, vouch for it. With a couple of vouches it'll become live again and can be responded to. Usually when I see a perfectly good, but dead, comment I check out the user's history. I usually see one of two situations here: 1. It's clear that they have a pattern of making nasty, off-topic, often vulgar comments. I'll still vouch for their good comments, but at least I…
Thanks, that's actually a good point.
I knew there was an option to vouch for comments but just assumed I did not have enough Karma to do so. But another comment in this discussion mentioned the "hidden" flag button, which you only see if you click the comments timestamp.
And sure enough, the vouch button is just there. So the problem may just be that you have to know where to find it. Which I now do. And hopefully everyone who didn't and reads this now as well.
Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?
#54pg says you can downvote if you disagree.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16131314
This was brought to my attention by the mods (dang) and they agree with it and enforce it yet they haven't documented it anywhere such as the guidelines. strange
Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?
#55I downvote anything I don't like and I upvote what I do like. Most of the time I'm upvoting someone who already made basically the same comment I was going to make. No point in saying the same thing again in another comment, just upvote. If someone says the opposite of what I was going to say, I downvote. I never understood people acting like downvoting is some huge crime or being downvoted is some great slight. It's…
You're being downvoted for stating you downvote things you don't like by others who don't like you downvoting things you don't like. The irony in that is worth savoring for a moment.
Thank you for pointing this out. My gut reaction was "glad they're getting downvoted for this" when I saw their comment.
Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?
#56[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?
#57>I think new accounts can't even downvote
You need 501 karma for downvoting, that exact number is undocumented on the FAQ page.
https://github.com/minimaxir/hacker-news-undocumented/blob/m...
For anyone else that curious about undocumented stuff, here are some previous discussions with that github link.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16437973 (Feb 2018)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19212822 (Feb 2019)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20292361 (June 2019)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23439437 (June 2020)
Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
When you see a dead comment that you feel shouldn't be, vouch for it. With a couple of vouches it'll become live again and can be responded to. Usually when I see a perfectly good, but dead, comment I check out the user's history. I usually see one of two situations here: 1. It's clear that they have a pattern of making nasty, off-topic, often vulgar comments. I'll still vouch for their good comments, but at least I…
Thanks, that's actually a good point. I knew there was an option to vouch for comments but just assumed I did not have enough Karma to do so. But another comment in this discussion mentioned the "hidden" flag button, which you only see if you click the comments timestamp. And sure enough, the vouch button is just there. So the problem may just be that you have to know where to find it. Which I now do. And hopefully e…
I probably should have mentioned that. Yeah, you have to click on posts (so the link isn't just visible in the normal discussion) in order to vouch or flag them. I think that that's a reasonable thing, it requires a moment's thought to do (even a brief one) so it can't be someone's reflex like downvoting.
I do appreciate that you can undo most of these actions now. There was a time when downvoting (and upvoting) were instantaneous and permanent. It was very frustrating when scrolling on my phone and accidentally downvoting someone because I used the wrong kind of press in the wrong place.
Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
When you see a dead comment that you feel shouldn't be, vouch for it. With a couple of vouches it'll become live again and can be responded to. Usually when I see a perfectly good, but dead, comment I check out the user's history. I usually see one of two situations here: 1. It's clear that they have a pattern of making nasty, off-topic, often vulgar comments. I'll still vouch for their good comments, but at least I…
Thanks, that's actually a good point. I knew there was an option to vouch for comments but just assumed I did not have enough Karma to do so. But another comment in this discussion mentioned the "hidden" flag button, which you only see if you click the comments timestamp. And sure enough, the vouch button is just there. So the problem may just be that you have to know where to find it. Which I now do. And hopefully e…
I suspect the intention was to create a small barrier to entry for the "heavier" features, to reduce petty usage. It only takes a little exploration to find (no offense, I didn't know about them for a while either).
Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?
#60I downvote anything I don't like and I upvote what I do like. Most of the time I'm upvoting someone who already made basically the same comment I was going to make. No point in saying the same thing again in another comment, just upvote. If someone says the opposite of what I was going to say, I downvote. I never understood people acting like downvoting is some huge crime or being downvoted is some great slight. It's…
The reason people frown upon the downvote is because we explicitly don't want people using it to express dislike. Rather, we should use it as a way for the community to self-police content that is not in line with our values as a community. Although it's unavoidable to some extent, I really don't want HN to develop a strong filter bubble where only things I agree with get shown. I want to see dissenting opinions and…
I always liked the idea behind it and have tried to stick to it, but I think having only a single button to express a positive or negative reaction is a mistake (I only learned today that there is a way to flag comments but it's not part of the main UI for some reason).
I'd like to see a wider range of options that have different effects on a post/comment like specific agree/disagree buttons that don't have the effect of making the comment move up/down or be lighter/darker, maybe just shows a count for both agree and disagree, not a single number that moves up for agree and down for disagree like votes do. Flag-like reactions should require some type of write-up, single-click actions are too convenient for users in a rage.