I wish HN had a downvote option for submissions

#1

Post by hivolix » Tue, Aug 11, 2020, 6:32 PM UTC

I think a dislike button option could be helpful to stop spreading biased and false information like this recent highly upvoted HN submission (please see its comments why not credible) : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24108109

Link title is: "C will never stop you from making mistakes"

Re: I wish HN had a downvote option for submissions

#2

Post by verdverm » Tue, Aug 11, 2020, 6:34 PM UTC

There is a downvoting feature for comments when you have enough HN karma points. 500 iirc

Re: I wish HN had a downvote option for submissions

#3

Post by hivolix » Tue, Aug 11, 2020, 6:42 PM UTC

verdverm wrote: post #2

There is a downvoting feature for comments when you have enough HN karma points. 500 iirc

Thanks. I updated the title to be more precise

Re: I wish HN had a downvote option for submissions

#4

Post by pwg » Tue, Aug 11, 2020, 6:47 PM UTC

Once you accumulate a "small karma threshold" (quote from the HN FAQ) you can 'flag' submissions. Flagging is the closest to a "dislike" option available. But it is suggested to use it for items that are off topic.

The better way to make sure items you find to be "positive" make the front page is to upvote everything you think deserves to get there. Upvote the positive, ignore the negative, and the negative will fade from view.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html

[edit]: add additional clarity

Re: I wish HN had a downvote option for submissions

#5

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Aug 11, 2020, 6:57 PM UTC

pwg wrote: post #4

Once you accumulate a "small karma threshold" (quote from the HN FAQ) you can 'flag' submissions. Flagging is the closest to a "dislike" option available. But it is suggested to use it for items that are off topic. The better way to make sure items you find to be "positive" make the front page is to upvote everything you think deserves to get there. Upvote the positive, ignore the negative, and the negative will fade…

[deleted]

Re: I wish HN had a downvote option for submissions

#6

Post by lemoncurd » Tue, Aug 11, 2020, 7:16 PM UTC

bias is not bad

Re: I wish HN had a downvote option for submissions

#7

Post by tmaly » Tue, Aug 11, 2020, 7:33 PM UTC

To be honest, I think the down vote is abused sometimes. It would be nice to see who down voted a comment. Transparency could help correct the abuse.

Re: I wish HN had a downvote option for submissions

#8

Post by hivolix » Tue, Aug 11, 2020, 7:41 PM UTC

tmaly wrote: post #7

To be honest, I think the down vote is abused sometimes. It would be nice to see who down voted a comment. Transparency could help correct the abuse.

I agree

Re: I wish HN had a downvote option for submissions

#9

Post by giantg2 » Tue, Aug 11, 2020, 8:01 PM UTC

tmaly wrote: post #7

To be honest, I think the down vote is abused sometimes. It would be nice to see who down voted a comment. Transparency could help correct the abuse.

Or make a comment necessary to downvote so hopefully there is an explanation. I have gotten downvotes and wonder why.

Re: I wish HN had a downvote option for submissions

#10

Post by zzo38computer » Tue, Aug 11, 2020, 10:05 PM UTC

tmaly wrote: post #7

To be honest, I think the down vote is abused sometimes. It would be nice to see who down voted a comment. Transparency could help correct the abuse.

I think what would be helpful is to have an option to ignore all voting for purpose of sorting, so that you can vote if you want to, but if you don't like to, you can disable that option and it will display only in the chronological order (it could hide the voting options too if you wanted to, but I suppose it doesn't have to do).