You aren't out of touch, I feel like the downvotes are being used more often on HN, maybe someone like dang could look at the actual data to see if there is any validity to the feeling.
Don't be a jerk
51–60 of 135 posts
Re: Don't be a jerk
#52Welcome to the internet. Maybe they erased the post by accident? How do you know that your answer solved their issue or was relevant? You might think that was the case but it might not be. In general, I think this is a extremely silly. I had instances where I would post about cloud infrastructure and somebody would crawl out of their hole to 'educate' me on colocation, thinking they are solving a ground breaking issu…
Please don't fall back on things like "welcome to the internet." One, it's needlessly snarky. Two, we would like this place to be better.
Re: Don't be a jerk
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
I will confess to being someone that often forgets to say thanks. My thought process runs something like "Gosh, that was really helpful, I should say thankyou. But thankyou isn't enough, I should think of a better way of saying thankyou." Then I forget to say anything at all for some time, and then I feel awkward because I left it so long to say thankyou. That's not an excuse. It's a total failure that I forget to sa…
I have this issue too but more so because I feel like I am just adding to the noise when I don't have anything more substantial to say other than Thank You. "People are already overloaded with the amount of emails they get, do I need to it?" is how I've looked at it but perhaps but that's not the best approach.
This is true as well. I don't really like receiving emails that just say 'Thank you', and I'm never sure whether other people do or not. Some relatively high-profile and busy people have said to me in the past "Did you get the thing I sent? You didn't say thanks." so it's definitely a personal thing.
Re: Don't be a jerk
#54I know I've had times when the answer/response made me look dumb, arrogant, etc, and I've been tempted to delete my comment. In those cases, it wouldn't have been the jerk thing to do, but the cowardly thing to do: if you say, own it, regardless of how it makes you look.
Mistakes are how we learn! Some of my best learning moments have been giving a wrong answer and then other people point out I'm wrong. (NB: it's completely possible for people to be polite when pointing out someone else is wrong.) OTOH, it takes a certain confidence to let your mistakes hang out in public. There is this feeling that everyone on HN is constantly judging all other people so we need to "look smart." Whe…
Good points ... of course, on the phenomenon of everyone constantly evaluating and knowing they're being evaluated: them little triangles, and the subsequent benefits / consequences, kinda encourage that. Bit of a double-edged sword, perhaps.
Re: Don't be a jerk
#55I find the same problem here as in SO. People like downvoting for what ever reason, but there's never any context as to why. If you feel a comment should be downvoted, go ahead, but provide a comment as well so the author knows why it was so. How are you supposed to be better yourself otherwise?
That's a good point. Actually, it might work on HN if each downvote required an explanation.
When you click the down arrow, it wouldn't apply immediately, but would first show you a text box for explaining the downvote (this would be just like the "Add Comment" page).
The explanation would not be publicly displayed anywhere, but would be accessible to moderators. This could be an effective filter against frivolous downvotes.
Re: Don't be a jerk
#56It seems like this is an instance of a more general trend: The commenting ecosystem is in decline. It's better than Reddit, but it's a shadow of what it once was. I've noticed downvotes are trending now. The downvotes do correct themselves... most of the time. But there's a lot more frivolous downvoting due to the influx of people that have attained downvote privileges but haven't really shunned the mindset of other…
On certain topics, HN always had a downvote problem for certain contrarian opinions. For example, heaven forbid you didn't think everything Apple produced when Steve Jobs was alive was a gift from heaven. Anything questioning that was always downvoted, even if presented in a non-snarky way. It was so bad that pg even introduced a downvote floor (-5) to keep people from shedding hundreds of points of karma when the do…
> On certain topics, HN always had a downvote problem for certain contrarian opinions. For example, heaven forbid you didn't think everything Apple produced when Steve Jobs was alive was a gift from heaven
Also see: Snowden is not a hero, Piracy is not ok & The NSA snooping is not so bad.
Re: Don't be a jerk
#57It seems like this is an instance of a more general trend: The commenting ecosystem is in decline. It's better than Reddit, but it's a shadow of what it once was. I've noticed downvotes are trending now. The downvotes do correct themselves... most of the time. But there's a lot more frivolous downvoting due to the influx of people that have attained downvote privileges but haven't really shunned the mindset of other…
I wholeheartedly agree. Downvoting people simply because you disagree with their viewpoint is an abomination. It should be a tool for discouraging abusive language or non-constructive discourse that doesn't add value to a conversation. I've been downvoted many times simply because I expressed a perfectly valid opinion that someone simply didn't like.
I have been down voted when there was a 10+ reply to my comment and question. I was told I was totally off base and needed to read the article.
I read the article and quoted exactly showing what I was talking about down voted again so that maybe people wouldn't see that they were actually wrong.
My favorite community right now is Google+ for R and VIM. Down votes are focusing on disagree and not constructive.
Re: Don't be a jerk
#58I know I've had times when the answer/response made me look dumb, arrogant, etc, and I've been tempted to delete my comment. In those cases, it wouldn't have been the jerk thing to do, but the cowardly thing to do: if you say, own it, regardless of how it makes you look.
In times like that I always try to evaluate whether I'm doing/thinking something out of fear. If yes, then I have to go against the fear. It's the only way to eventually get better. Also that whole thing about the best way of finding good answers on the internet is not to ask questions, but to post wrong answers. I use that one a lot. It makes me look like an idiot, but golly do I learn a lot fast .
Huh. Nice trick. Thanks!
Re: Don't be a jerk
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Give me a break. You sound exactly like the elderly folks you always hear saying "things used to be so much better, nobody saying "Sir" and "Ma'am" anymore...kids these days have no manners." The commenting ecosystem on the internet has always been a coarse and insensitive place, and it always will be. This is not a new thing.
Ironically, this is a perfect example of a comment that never would have been written in the old days. There may have been an instance here or there of HN being coarse or insensitive, but it was the exception and not the rule. Evidently, that has reversed.
So any rebuttal to the "it used to be so much better" trope that is trotted out every few months is now made into an example of how "bad" things have gotten?
Re: Don't be a jerk
#60If you enjoyed responding (like I am doing now), then that's that. You got the worth of the time you spent. Of course, if one were _expecting_ more than that (e.g. others not being a jerk or even being nice), then its fulfillment is an added bonus. By not getting the bonus, should we be unhappy also about the salary that we already got? Or is this too idealistic an opinion? If the others' behavior _deeply_ affects us then we are too vulnerable, no?