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Ask YC: Voting and Karma (Call to action)

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Ask YC: Voting and Karma (Call to action)

#1

Post by iamdave »

I'm going to ask this as simply as can simply be asked:

In your opinion what is the purpose for the upvote and downvote? The general consensus is the upvote is for when we agree, but there is a dichotomy, or perhaps an even larger disagreement on what the downvote should be used for.

I think it's time to come to a community understanding of one another, and in my opinion this indiscriminate downvoting of comments without offering some sort of foundation on our disagreement or general apprehension to the topic is inherently threatening to the positive vibe of this community.

Discuss.

Re: Ask YC: Voting and Karma (Call to action)

#2

Post by cperciva »

In your opinion what is the purpose for the upvote and downvote?

Upvote = "I'd like to see more comments like this".

Downvote = "I'd like to see fewer comments like this".

I don't think that people having different reasons for wanting more or less of a particular type of comment is a problem.

Re: Ask YC: Voting and Karma (Call to action)

#3

Post by edw519 »

I almost never downvote.

The only time I downvote is if something is extremely inappropriate, negative, trolling, or is degrading (IMO) to the quality of this community.

I never downvote when I disagree. If I disagree, I reply with my disagreement. I wish others would too. Not much to learn from downvotes. Lots to learn from discussion and healthy debate.

I upvote often, to anything that I think adds value.

Re: Ask YC: Voting and Karma (Call to action)

#4

Post by tptacek »

The reflection of comment scores in user karma makes this problem worse; it means we're keeping score, and creates artificial reasons to vote comments. Granted, if post submissions were all that HN tracked, I'd have a karma of 0. But I still think Reddit's system is better.

Re: Ask YC: Voting and Karma (Call to action)

#5

Post by DanielBMarkham »

Downvotes without an explanation have no meaning. You should be required to explain why you downvoted.

If a downvote means "I'd like to see fewer comments like this" -- then, why? What is wrong? Is it off-topic, rude, you disgaree, it used words you don't like, it ran on too long. What, what, what is the problem?!?! A downvote gives you nothing but some vague feeling that you broke some kind of social rule or norm somewhere _without actually explaining what it was you did_

Downvotes are mostly non-useful and promote "safe" comments, which have a tendency to be boring.

Re: Ask YC: Voting and Karma (Call to action)

#6

Post by ideas101 »

i think there should be no down-vote - because i very rarely notice that someone comments that doesn't make no sense at all - also if people who get up-voted will automatically gain more value anyway...

so for example if i make a comment that doesn't make sense then nobody will up-vote me (and nobody can down-vote me either as there is no option to do that either) and i will end-up having lowest score (which is 1) compare to others. also down-vote de-motivates more than no-vote... so why de-motivate someone.

i hope i explained in simplistic way...

Re: Ask YC: Voting and Karma (Call to action)

#7

Post by dcurtis »

At the very basis, an upvote means "I want other people to see this" and a downvote means "I think this is a waste of other people's time."

Your voting habits don't influence what you see at all, so it really has no personal effect; you're voting things for other people.

Re: Ask YC: Voting and Karma (Call to action)

#8

Post by schtog »

One thing i thought about was that sure if you don't downvote there could be others later upvoting it so it becomes positive but I rarely see that happen.

So if something is already -2 it doesn't need to get downvoted to -10(ok this rarely happens and of course something racist or similar might deserve it).

And sometimes it seems posts get downvoted because of the opinion and not the quality of the post.

I upvote posts that I like because of the opinion but I don't downvote posts I disagree with if they motivate their opinions well.

I only downvote if it is a slandering post with no argumentation.

Re: Ask YC: Voting and Karma (Call to action)

#10

Post by aneesh »

daveambrose wrote: post #9

I usually never downvote, but when there's something I blatantly disagree with, I'll downvote. I'll upvote for two reasons: 1. More HN readers need to see this. 2. Excellent point.

downvote != disagreement

If someone says something I don't agree with, but says it reasonably and with some sort of support, I'll reply instead of downvoting.

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