A pet peeve and growing trend on Hacker News is someone getting down voted for a comment, then writing another comment asking why they were down voted and then an ensuing discussion as to why they were down voted. Discussions of being down voted are largely off topic and are just plain annoying. Please stop caring so much about how much "karma" points you have. "Karma" is just a virtual reputation system. Please just stick to writing well thought out comments. Why do you care so much that you're being down voted?
Ask HN: Why do you care so much that you're being down voted?
1–10 of 18 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why do you care so much that you're being down voted?
#2For me it's not the karma, it's the implication that my well-intentioned comment that was intended to add value has been considered by someone in "the community" to be the opposite, and to be of negative value.
If that happens then there is a mis-match between my understanding and reality, and as a mathematician, engineer, hacker, and general learner for life, I want to know why. When people disagree with me it's an opportunity to learn, and I want to take that opportunity, especially from people who have chosen to self-identify with this "community."
Re: Ask HN: Why do you care so much that you're being down voted?
#3Why is it not okay for people to try and find out why they're being downvoted, but it's okay for you to post a whole topic talking about how annoying you find it?
In both cases the person, be it the downvotee or you, is trying to discover the reason for a behaviour.
Edit: it's also considered poor form to order people to modify their behaviour to match your particular preferences.
Re: Ask HN: Why do you care so much that you're being down voted?
#4If it's not clear, I will ask why I was down voted in order to improve the quality of my future comments.
> Discussions of being down voted are largely off topic and are just plain annoying.
They are pretty easy to ignore: just don't read the child comments of greyed out comments.
Re: Ask HN: Why do you care so much that you're being down voted?
#5If someone downvotes me, I would indeed like to know why.
If someone downvotes me because they disagree with me, I would prefer they state their disagreement rather than downvote.
If someone downvotes me because they think I'm being rude, I would like to know what it is about my comment that they consider rude.
If someone downvotes me for being an Apple/Google/Microsoft fanboy, I would like the opportunity to disabuse them of that notion.
If someone downvotes me because my comment is incorrect, I would like to know what the truth is.
Downvoting is sometimes used as a lazy way of saying "This is a poor comment" (I know, I do it myself sometimes when I am tired). But without saying why a comment is poor, it is itself a poor form of feedback.
I might come back to a comment I wrote the day before, and in a different frame of mind be able to see why it has been downvoted. But when I can't see why, it is frustrating.
I don't really care about my HN karma. It's just a number that tends to go up sporadically.
Re: Ask HN: Why do you care so much that you're being down voted?
#6From the early comments I think I linked the concept of being downvoted to "karma" too strongly.
This was because the Hacker News Guidelines state (http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html): Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.
My assumption is that people had read this and largely obey the guidelines.
Re: Ask HN: Why do you care so much that you're being down voted?
#7Why is it not okay for people to try and find out why they're being downvoted, but it's okay for you to post a whole topic talking about how annoying you find it? In both cases the person, be it the downvotee or you, is trying to discover the reason for a behaviour. Edit: it's also considered poor form to order people to modify their behaviour to match your particular preferences.
It's not poor form. The Hacker News Guidelines state (http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html): Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.
It is poor form to not abide by the house rules.
Re: Ask HN: Why do you care so much that you're being down voted?
#8Personally, I don't care if I'm downvoted. Given that I don't usually say incredibly stupid things here, when I'm downvoted it is almost always a temporary phenomenon (most often it seems like fanboy kneejerk downvoting because I said that whatever company/product they love might not be perfect) that eventually corrects itself, so asking about it wouldn't really serve any purpose.
I have to admit that when people do say incredibly stupid things (and not just things I disagree with, but really stupid/unhelpful comments), I love it when they complain about the downvoting in a subsequent post because then I can downvote them twice. I'm not sure if that is proper HN etiquette or not, but I'm guilty of it.
Re: Ask HN: Why do you care so much that you're being down voted?
#9Why is it not okay for people to try and find out why they're being downvoted, but it's okay for you to post a whole topic talking about how annoying you find it? In both cases the person, be it the downvotee or you, is trying to discover the reason for a behaviour. Edit: it's also considered poor form to order people to modify their behaviour to match your particular preferences.
It's not poor form. The Hacker News Guidelines state ( http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html ): Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. It is poor form to not abide by the house rules.
I said it was poor form to order people to modify their behaviour to match your particular preferences.
The house rules mention complaining about downvotes. As you've found out, people are wanting to learn why they've been downvoted, they're trying to understand. That's not complaining.
Re: Ask HN: Why do you care so much that you're being down voted?
#10I only see an upvote button, what gives?