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

61–70 of 101 posts

Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?

#61

Post by deeg »

I can't downvote (yet!) but if I could it would be rare and would be for one of these two reasons:

1) Extremely rude, disrespectful, or hateful.

2) Pushes conspiracy theories as truthful. Like anti-vaxxers.

One of the reasons I value HN is to read opinions that are the opposite of mine. Sometimes they bring up points that I've never considered, other times they make me think more about my own positions. At the very least I might better understand the reasons for other opinions.

I would rather read a news story on HN with the opinions than just read it on a "regular" news site, even something reputable like NYTimes. I feel I learn more about the topic.

Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?

#62

Post by Jtsummers »

the-dude wrote: post #44
wcerfgba wrote: post #4

I view downvotes as an incomplete feature. If you disagree with some content -- because it is misinformation, or useless, or maybe you just disagree with the argument -- you should be able to explain what's wrong with it. I would much rather have a system where a downvote required a reason, so instead of a downvote it would be more like a comment which can also -1 / 0 / +1 the karma of the parent.

Doesn't /. have this?

Yes. It's been a long time since I've been to /., but I used to be pretty active on it. You'd get 5 moderation points at a time, you'd only get those if you had good karma and you wouldn't get them very often. You applied them to comments and marked the reason for the up or down vote.

They also did meta-moderation. You could choose to meta-moderate and you'd be shown a post (or posts) with their moderation and could select whether the moderation was appropriate or not. So a post like yours that got marked "off-topic" by someone (it's not, it's a fair and earnest question) would result in the moderator getting some kind of penalty in meta-moderation.

Another thing I liked was that if you participated in the discussion your moderation points disappeared. So if I moderated your comment (up or down) and then replied elsewhere, your comment lost or gained a point.

Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?

#63

Post by happytoexplain »

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…

I downvoted you to build up your tolerance :)

(But let's say officially it was for this tiny grain of snark: "Let's see if I get downvoted here too, as I wrote this on the go without checking all my facts.")

I feel the same way as you - not about strangers on HN, but rather about people whom I will interact with who might see what I write, which is why I don't use this handle anywhere else. But downvotes? Who cares if you get downvoted? It's bad in that your thought is disappearing, but emotionally and intellectually it's useful information: What you said rubbed the HN audience wrong at a high ratio. You can either get upset and fall into the trap of blaming "them" because they have bad politics or are snowflakes or whatever, or you can allow that information to simply make the world clearer for you and use the chance to try to re-read what you wrote from an outside perspective.

Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?

#64

Post by yodon »

I don't have hard analytical data here but on highly partisan tech issues (Microsoft, Open Source and Licensing, Language strengths and weaknesses, etc) I've noticed there is often a significant swing in the direction of the voting over time with the first voters (who are presumably quickly refreshing the HN new page and responding immediately to everything) being the most hyper-tech-partisan, anti-Microsoft, pro-GPL, anti-TypeScript downvoters (but not commenters) pounding well-intentioned comments quickly into the gray, followed later in the day by the more mainstream HN voters and commenters who appear to be much less dogmatically anti-Microsoft, etc., and who commonly flip those initially grayed out comments back into positive territory and frequently well up into the comment rankings.

Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?

#66

Post by [deleted] »

ZinniaZirconium wrote: post #47
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…

Registering an account through a VPN is an automatic shadowban without warning. How is a new user supposed to know this? Hacker News is a lot less hospitable in reality than it seems to an outsider. If you just register a lurker account and enable showdead and look around it's a veritable zombietown in here.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?

#67

Post by notacoward »

Most often for obvious bad-faith arguments, such as clinging to misinformation or logical fallacies despite having them pointed out as such. Sometimes for extreme rudeness toward another commenter (not a public figure). Never for mere disagreement. Also never for "not adding enough to the conversation" because I think the hostility toward short comments and "small talk" here drives every conversation toward pompous verbosity. There's nothing wrong with a "lighter" conversational style.

Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?

#68

Post by happytoexplain »

ilamont wrote: post #48

I don't see many people admitting that they downvote opinions they disagree with, but I will. It's a simple way for me to assert "I disagree," even if the act will have no visible impact (unless many others do the same). It also lets me track which comments I've downvoted (via the "undown" tag) vs. those that I have upvoted. Sometimes it's difficult to decide whether I should upvote or downvote a comment. Opinions ar…

I never say this, but I'd genuinely love to hear the rationale for people downvoting a comment whose only apparent crime is saying "I downvote comments I disagree with". (I don't deny there may be another reason to downvote this comment aside from simply disagreeing with it, but I don't see anything that sticks out).

Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?

#69

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

lmilcin wrote: post #49

I am pretty frustrated with downvotes, it seems a lot of users downvote for very different reasons that I do and so here are some reasons I downvote: - blatant misinformation, - posts that I feel are way off HN standards (for example just throwing expletives, writing "fr1st", generally wasting vertical space with no content), - focusing on HN voting mechanics and generally complaining about downvotes (no, I don't wan…

> generally complaining about downvotes (no, I don't want to hear why you think your post is being downvoted, if you can't take downvotes as what it is -- voice of multitude of people that may be right or wrong, stop posting)

I sort of agree, but I also dislike comments being downvoted without any replies; it becomes a blind "people dislike and/or disagree with your comment, but good luck figuring out why".

Re: Ask HN: Why Do You Downvote?

#70

Post by hirundo »

kube-system wrote: post #16
wcerfgba wrote: post #4

I view downvotes as an incomplete feature. If you disagree with some content -- because it is misinformation, or useless, or maybe you just disagree with the argument -- you should be able to explain what's wrong with it. I would much rather have a system where a downvote required a reason, so instead of a downvote it would be more like a comment which can also -1 / 0 / +1 the karma of the parent.

The downvote button is not a disagree button. If you disagree with something, add your own comment. That's the point of a discussion board. Downvotes are for comments which are not worthy of a response because they are not honest attempts at discussion.

> The downvote button is not a disagree button.

That's wishful thinking. In practice that's just what it is. I'd be in favor of some magical gui change that would fix that, but it doesn't exist.

Post reply on HN