Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Suggest HN: Force downvoters to punch in why

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 22 posts

Re: Suggest HN: Force downvoters to punch in why

#11

Post by type0 »

digitalarborist wrote: post #3
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #2

I think I've commented before on wanting to see this as well. Anonymous downvotes are pretty much just meaningless negativity. I'd much rather have the ability to see why I was downvoted, and tell other people why I downvoted them. (I think this would make sense to only be visible to the downvoter and the downvotee, to keep the visible public discussion constructive.)

Tech folks always say communicating with huge corporations is similar to communicating with a psychopath, but communicating online in general has this feeling. You're not talking to anyone it's like talking to a brick wall that will give you a pat or a prod after you give it a couple hours. I think I might just not be up for online mob communication like this and will just go back to lurking. I do have the desire to…

Completely agree, some threads feel like people are talking in the same voice. The feeling is that you are not reading the conversation but some sort of badly ordered essay. Absence of avatars is also the one to blame for this but it also has a good effect that you don't judge written comments by the picture next to it.

Re: Suggest HN: Force downvoters to punch in why

#12

Post by type0 »

I can think of one way doing it. Maybe if its implemented anonymously with several different reasons of multi-choice boxes. Somewhat the way you report youtube-video abuse. Then attach those votes on why the comment got downvoted to be visible when it's clicked on item id, with appropriate chart presented.

Re: Suggest HN: Force downvoters to punch in why

#13

Post by Mz »

This would basically be all kinds of drama. You also could not trust the feedback. Some people will down vote for terrible reasons, like a personal grudge. They would not be honest about that.

Also, some down votes are a miss-click. It is now possible to unvote, but that is recent and not everyone will notice if they fat fingered something.

I suggest you give more of your attention to the positive interactions. It is possible to make that choice.

Re: Suggest HN: Force downvoters to punch in why

#14

Post by Lordarminius »

I up-voted this topic because it resonates with me.

Being relatively new to HN I was rather taken aback by the misuse of the down-vote privilege by some people who capriciously wield it. I was even afraid to mention it in case I got down-voted again, since my one experience with the down-vote was when I requested for reasons why another contributors post had been down-voted!

People who wield this power are long-term users who should aspire to a higher standard. I welcome this push for accountability .

Re: Suggest HN: Force downvoters to punch in why

#15

Post by GFK_of_xmaspast »

digitalarborist wrote: post #5
GFK_of_xmaspast wrote: post #4

They're just imaginary internet points.

There was a time when Youtube view and subscriber count was similar. Now there is a cadre of Youtube professionals whos careers live and die by these numbers. Also, neither I nor anyone else cares about the points, I don't expect to spend them at the karma store. What I do care about, as I'm sure you do as well, is whether something I said is incorrect and why.

I care about being correct, I don't care if the hacker news commentariat agrees with what I say.

Re: Suggest HN: Force downvoters to punch in why

#16

Post by Lordarminius »

GFK_of_xmaspast wrote: post #4

They're just imaginary internet points.

> They're just imaginary internet points.

Congratulations. You managed to earn a (deserved)down-vote in a post that crusades against them. :)

But more to the point. HN is an awesome community of very well informed and accomplished people who provide their viewpoints and broaden (my) understanding of many issues. Discussions generate feedback sometimes reflected in the up/down votes we accumulate. So while they may be imaginary, votes serve a very real and useful purpose.

Re: Suggest HN: Force downvoters to punch in why

#18

Post by brudgers »

UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #9
brudgers wrote: post #7

At some point, I started treating downvotes as feedback on my writing. So I would take another look at what I wrote. Maybe I did not make my point clearly. Maybe what I said was wrong. Maybe it just wasn't worth saying. Maybe I was an asshat. Then I would edit it or delete it or leave it alone...and I've consciously left asshat comments alone because sometimes my intent was to be an asshat. All of that still applies,…

I agree, that a lot of downvotes are caused by tone, writing style, or clarity. However there's also a lot of downvotes caused simply by being against the consensus. And while I feel like sometimes people are against the group-think just for the sake of it (or to ruffle feathers) there are also times when a healthy dose of alternative viewpoints can dampen the group-think getting too extreme. For example, just yester…

To me, the referenced discussion is the sort of context where if I'm outraged enough to write a rebuttal to someone's political views, I'm probably better off just downvoting...and so is the thread and so is HN.

There's no escalation. There's no feeding trolling behavior. There's no toehold on my future: I won't be curious about replies. It's cathartic. One click and I'm done expressing disagreement.

Re: Suggest HN: Force downvoters to punch in why

#19

Post by brudgers »

Lordarminius wrote: post #14

I up-voted this topic because it resonates with me. Being relatively new to HN I was rather taken aback by the misuse of the down-vote privilege by some people who capriciously wield it. I was even afraid to mention it in case I got down-voted again, since my one experience with the down-vote was when I requested for reasons why another contributors post had been down-voted! People who wield this power are long-term…

Comments about downvotes are discouraged by the Hacker News guidelines. They are often downvoted by people who feel such comments add little to the discussion at hand. To me, it's rare for a comment about downvoting to add anything to a discussion.

Which is not to imply that I dislike being downvoted any less than anyone else.

Re: Suggest HN: Force downvoters to punch in why

#20

Post by ocdtrekkie »

type0 wrote: post #10
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #2

I think I've commented before on wanting to see this as well. Anonymous downvotes are pretty much just meaningless negativity. I'd much rather have the ability to see why I was downvoted, and tell other people why I downvoted them. (I think this would make sense to only be visible to the downvoter and the downvotee, to keep the visible public discussion constructive.)

The problem is that you get counter down-votes for those explanations and that quickly turns into flame wars. As is it now everyone free to comment on why they downvote someone. I can see it being useful to not allow making too many downvotes for one person for one day. This way knowing that your downvotes are limited you could spend them wisely.

That's why I would keep those downvote explanations private to the people being downvoted. And don't have them part of the vote/downvote system.
Post reply on HN