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Ask HN: What kind of a downvoter are you?

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Ask HN: What kind of a downvoter are you?

#1

Post by markozivanovic »

There are many reasons why people downvote comments/posts in any community - be it HN, Reddit, Facebook, etc. I would be thankful if you could explain your reasoning for downvoting the comments when you choose to do so.

For example, I'll sometimes see a massively downvoted comment that's constructive and beautifully written, but it carries an opinion that is not currently popular for whatever reason.

I believe that downvoting someone just because you disagree with them is terrible for a discussion network like HN. Moreover, I would say that I learned the most from the comments that I disagreed with - on all levels, politically, technologically, personally.

I will downvote a comment if it's not constructive, only written to be provocative, etc. It doesn't matter if I agree with the author's opinion or not. If someone puts in the effort to explain their opinion politely and constructively, my thinking is that it's positive for all the people in the community.

So, what kind of a downvoter are you? What are some of your reasons for downvoting a comment?

Re: Ask HN: What kind of a downvoter are you?

#3

Post by zaphar »

I only downvote when a comment checks all of the following boxes for me:

* It has little to no content relating to the conversation.

* It is also unnecessarily provocative.

Basically if it looks like a troll, walks like a troll, and acts like a troll it get's the downvote.

Re: Ask HN: What kind of a downvoter are you?

#4

Post by injb »

An interesting thing about HN downvoting is that it makes the comment disappear (for you) immediately. So downvoting = "I don't want to see/hear this"

I sometimes reflexively downvote but when I see the comment collapse, it gives me pause and makes me think about my own motivations - do I really think that comment simply shouldn't appear for me, or do I just disagree with it? Even if I think it's ignorant or badly written, I still have to think twice.

In contrast, other platforms let you downvote and reply, which I think lets you try to have it both ways: I want to tell you what I think of your stupid comment, but I also don't want you to be part of the conversation. Maybe that's fundamentally wrong.

I agree with the other person who said people can be too think skinned about the whole business though.

Re: Ask HN: What kind of a downvoter are you?

#5

Post by wut42 »

On HN, I rarely downvote. I only downvote when it's blatant spam, or out of topic, or provocative.

But on Reddit, I now tend to downvote things I dislike. I originally acted like on HN, but I noticed that _everyone_ else is downvoting because 'they don't like it', so I got on it too.

Re: Ask HN: What kind of a downvoter are you?

#6

Post by wruza »

The same as described in OP. Btw, it is not my personal trait, I just know how it supposed to be here and how it makes HN HN. Maybe it’s in the rules/faq, visited it pretty long ago.

Edit: I think that the common idea of downvoting on HN is that it’s not your own opinion on a post content, but actually a public moderation mechanism allowing you to decide if that comment fits HN, not you, without flagging it to a moderator.

Re: Ask HN: What kind of a downvoter are you?

#7

Post by wruza »

injb wrote: post #4

An interesting thing about HN downvoting is that it makes the comment disappear (for you) immediately. So downvoting = "I don't want to see/hear this" I sometimes reflexively downvote but when I see the comment collapse, it gives me pause and makes me think about my own motivations - do I really think that comment simply shouldn't appear for me, or do I just disagree with it? Even if I think it's ignorant or badly wr…

This is yours-only collapse [-], not downvote. Downvoting is enabled at 500, afaik, I just upvoted you to 500 for you to see/test it :)

Re: Ask HN: What kind of a downvoter are you?

#8

Post by 1ibsq »

I'm not cynical, but I kind of gave up on people who don't behave on the internet or are blatantly stupid. Sometimes this feels like I gave up on the internet as a whole, but I try to accept that it won't change anything whether I care or not. Things will go their way no matter if I fight it or not. So I try to ignore it. But what I want to do, is, I want to upvote more. I want to encourage people to be open with their thoughts and knowledge and create output that I think benefits more people and puts us on the right direction.

Long story short: I try to focus on what has value and encourage that behavior with upvotes and further comments.

PS: What's the required karma to downvote? I'm currently not in the position to be able to downvote anyway ^^

Edit: (1) "I'm not cynical, but ..." Well, not a good start... I try not to be, maybe I am. But I don't want to be. (2) Karma required to downvote is 500 according to another commenter

Re: Ask HN: What kind of a downvoter are you?

#9

Post by [deleted] »

wut42 wrote: post #5

On HN, I rarely downvote. I only downvote when it's blatant spam, or out of topic, or provocative. But on Reddit, I now tend to downvote things I dislike. I originally acted like on HN, but I noticed that _everyone_ else is downvoting because 'they don't like it', so I got on it too.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What kind of a downvoter are you?

#10

Post by edmcnulty101 »

The worst is users with the ability to flag content.

I have dead comments turned on and see a lot of well-made thought provoking comments that that are flagged because they are contrary to the popular narrative.

On the other hand there are a lot of bad comments that deserve to be flagged so it's a double-edged sword.

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