Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 101 posts

Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?

#31

Post by gen25c391574a4a »

The great thing about the downvote feature is that is perfectly individually subjective, and thereby its affect on comments is an emergent property reflecting the subjective sentiment of the community. Perhaps more importantly, by only enabling downvotes after some period of time, new users are acclimated to the culture here (say, versus reddit), and thereby dampen culture swings.

To the OP's question, since the aggregate effect of downvoting is suppressing the visibility of a comment, I think of a downvote as my personal "delete" button.

Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?

#33

Post by CM30 »

Generally, I try to avoid downvoting when there's been an honest attempt to add to/start a discussion, or when I merely disagree with someone.

So the only things I generally downvote are literal spam (this makes up the vast, vast majority of content I downvote, however small that number is) and deliberate misinformation.

Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?

#34

Post by mlvljr »

Grumbledour wrote: post #19

The 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…

Highfive for that.

Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?

#35

Post by jgwil2 »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #21

I never downvote anything anywhere ever. I don't understand how can downvoting make any constructive sense. You are meant to flag whatever is spam, offense or blatant misinformation anyway. I also believe many people would feel very bad if you downvote them so you should better have a serious reason. The fact you disagree or don't like them (let alone don't consider what they wrote interesting/useful for you) is not…

Probably part of the reason people downvote is that the button is one click away, whereas the flag button for comments is two clicks away and probably many people aren't even aware of it.

Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?

#36

Post by exotree »

I downvote for personal attacks, comments that are clearly off topic or add unnecessary snark or derisive language to the topic at hand, or very clear disinformation. That maybe leads to me downvoting maybe 1 out of... hundreds of comments I read on here a week.

Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?

#37

Post by bena »

I notice I get downvoted every time I bring up an uncomfortable situation with anything that touches on the ethical side of automation.

I never get discussion on the issues I bring up. At best I get hand-waving.

Even though I admit the questions are hard and the problems are going to be difficult. But it is concerning that we aren't even thinking about the issues that come with "near-automation".

As for myself, I would like to think I only downvote people who seem to be unnecessarily combative. But, being a human, I'm willing to accept that my judgment may not be 100%. Or that I may have perceived the comment wrong. That would be my ideal, however.

Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?

#38

Post by Jtsummers »

Grumbledour wrote: post #19

The 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 can understand why they were dead to begin with.

2. If their history is of mostly normal comments except one bad joke at the start of their posting history that got them hell banned, then I'll vouch for them and let them know what's happened.

Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?

#39

Post by NameDoesntExist »

Grumbledour wrote: post #22
orliesaurus wrote: post #9

A lot of times I decide not to contribute because I am afraid of being downvoted into the abysss, usually all it takes, is one reply to interpret my own comment wrongly or assuming things I don't specificy. Then the HN readers will read my comment and the disagreeing reply. At this point, I get downvoted (or upvoted) based on the interpretation of my comment by the reply. So if I don't spend 20minutes making sure my…

So, out of curiosity: Why do you care if you get downvoted? Are there negative repercussions when using the site? But you know, making sure your post is factual correct, nicely worded and thought out seems to be a good consequence. Reading that I actually wish I was afraid of downvotes so I put more effort into some of mine.

If you use HN pseudonymously, then downvotes aren't as impactful.

But if you use HN as a funnel for brand building, talent acquisition, or as an authoritative voice for your company, then they can be costly.

Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?

#40

Post by happytoexplain »

WhompingWindows wrote: post #26

Personally, I never downvote based on whether I agree with someone. I only downvote for low-effort comments that do not contribute, things like "lol" or 5-10 word comments with no evidence/explanation. Even if someone needs citations, I'm not going to downvote them, I'll ask for further evidence/citations, which in itself often gets downvoted. I've been downvoted a number of times for posting well-written, thought-ou…

Note: The parent was significantly edited while I was writing.

>for posting well-written, thought-out responses which other people disagreed with

I could write a well-written, thought-out argument in favor of segregating blacks. I'm not suspicious of you - I'm just saying, maybe you're making too much assumption about how valuable your writing is, since you've only used "well written" and "thought out" as evidence.

>just for playing Devil's Advocate

Do you announce that that's what you're doing? Do you think there is such thing as a comment that deserves downvotes, but that wouldn't if it was written the same word for word with the exception of being announced as a thought exercise? (Not rhetorical - I suspect my personal answer is yes).

>within a minute

A minute is a long time.

> They are coddled and react negatively to things they disagree with

This is a broad and specific accusation to level at people just because they downvoted you. It's also a very convenient way to convince oneself that one is "the better person".

Post reply on HN