Poll: I disagree with you, is it ok to downvote you? • Hacker News Board

Re: Poll: I disagree with you, is it ok to downvote you?

#21

Post by jobu » Thu, Aug 07, 2014, 7:22 PM UTC

chrisBob wrote: post #3

I am sure I missed some perfectly reasonable answers, so please let me know. I have only ever used the downvote button a few times, mostly for reason A, but there is also at least one out there that I would take back if that were an option. I have also been downvoted myself, and I know that especially for someone with low karma it can be a real blow.

Since I tend to highlight text with a mouse as a I read, there are a number of threads that I have accidentally voted on. I would really appreciate the ability to change my up/down vote on HN (even if it's only available for a limited time).

Re: Poll: I disagree with you, is it ok to downvote you?

#22

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Aug 07, 2014, 7:23 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Poll: I disagree with you, is it ok to downvote you?

#23

Post by snowwrestler » Thu, Aug 07, 2014, 7:23 PM UTC

I downvote comments that I think do not add anything relevant to that particular discussion.

For example, any time there is an article about email marketing, there are always people on HN who post how they hate getting commercial email, all commercial email is spam, all email newsletters are spam, etc.

I often downvote these because they add nothing of substance to a discussion of the article itself; they're just people staking their claim to a particular opinion.

It's fine to have opinions (we all do), but if the thread is about a particular technique or technology to improve email marketing, then a bald "I hate it all" statement doesn't add anything.

Re: Poll: I disagree with you, is it ok to downvote you?

#24

Post by chc » Thu, Aug 07, 2014, 7:24 PM UTC

jobu wrote: post #12

notori0us wrote: post #7

I like the reason "This doesn't add to the conversation."

Why downvote if it doesn't detract from the conversation? My rule of thumb is to upvote if the comment is insightful or has information I find useful. Downvote if it seems blatantly incorrect, mean, overly negative or is actively trying to make the conversation worse. Otherwise I just ignore it.

Comments that add nothing to the conversation are noise, and noise necessarily harms the signal-to-noise ratio.

Re: Poll: I disagree with you, is it ok to downvote you?

#25

Post by bengali3 » Thu, Aug 07, 2014, 7:24 PM UTC

didgeoridoo wrote: post #13

How about "It's really small and right next to the upvote button and there's no way to take it back if you fat-finger it"?

..but i just wanted to collapse and hide the child elements?

Re: Poll: I disagree with you, is it ok to downvote you?

#26

Post by alashley » Thu, Aug 07, 2014, 7:24 PM UTC

Downvoting someone because you disagree with them is the online equlivalent of saying somebody is stupid because their views differ from yours.

Re: Poll: I disagree with you, is it ok to downvote you?

#27

Post by colanderman » Thu, Aug 07, 2014, 7:26 PM UTC

click170 wrote: post #14

Does B include people who are factually incorrect and easily proven wrong with a simple intuitive Google search? Eg they misrepresented a fact, not presented a dissenting opinion. To me it does, and I downvote that.

This should be a separate option. I never downvote comments which differ from my opinion, but I always downvote comments which differ from fact.

Re: Poll: I disagree with you, is it ok to downvote you?

#28

Post by WritelyDesigned » Thu, Aug 07, 2014, 7:26 PM UTC

A big problem with this poll is that the lines between option A and B have become largely blurred in today's society.

For example: "I disagree with the President of the United States and feel his policies are harming America."

Response: "You are a racist."

Of course, the reason for disagreeing with the President has nothing to do with race, yet it's an easy way to attack and silence points with which some do not agree.

As one commenter noted, "there are no rules." Really, it comes down to rational, thinking human beings being open to an alternative point of view rather than finding every way possible to attack people on the other end of the table—whether by downvoting or crying "racism."

Re: Poll: I disagree with you, is it ok to downvote you?

#29

Post by zzzeek » Thu, Aug 07, 2014, 7:27 PM UTC

I'm sort of amazed that "B" has only 12 points at this moment. I am downvoted all the time based on B. Otherwise, I'd love someone to go through my comments and find how many that fall under A or G (as I'd very much want to learn to never fall under either of these categories). Unless you think, "zzzeek posted facts that are incorrect (sure), misunderstood the person he was responding to (arguable IMHO but i often make this impression), told person-I-like they are wrong (lots), used a little too heavy on the sarcasm (I think I've improved a lot in this regard but I continue to work on this) therefore the comment is MEAN! -> downvote".

Re: Poll: I disagree with you, is it ok to downvote you?

#30

Post by rsync » Thu, Aug 07, 2014, 7:30 PM UTC

Whatever the results here, I want to use this opportunity to strongly object to all of the meta-scoring-discussion that I see more and more of ...

Editing your comment, or adding additional comments with things like "why the downvotes ... ?" or "not sure why I am being downvoted because ..." or "you can downvote all you want, but ..."

By all means edit posts and post followups and continue the discussion, but please, please let's stop injecting literal references to the scoring system into the conversation itself. It's distracting at best, and really narcissistic at worst.