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

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 63 posts

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

#31

Post by will_work4tears »

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.

Why do you feel that something that is incorrect (even blatantly) isn't useful? I have often observed a thread where somebody ignorantly spouts something and is taught appropriately. I've learned stuff from those and left with a net positive. The original poster might never admit to being wrong, or changing his world-view, but I certainly have many times.

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

#32

Post by walterbell »

chc wrote: post #24
jobu wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What if such a comment was the only one? Is is better that the OP observe no votes and no comments, or a single comment saying "Thanks!"?

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

#33

Post by brandon272 »

I was under the impression that I can downvote whatever I want to for whatever reason I see fit. Reading the HN guidelines, there are no rules dictating what criteria should be met for me to be allowed to downvote (or upvote) a post. What it does say is:

> Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.

The current method of downvoting appears to work just fine. I can't recall the last time that I saw a truly valuable, substantive argument downvoted into oblivion at the bottom of the page.

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

#34

Post by francoisdevlin »

colanderman wrote: post #27
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.

I find the sub threads the correct things in a helpful (kind tone, provide citations), however

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

#37

Post by DanBC »

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.

Why don't you just provide a correction?

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

#38

Post by egeozcan »

A community feels hostile when everyone down-votes the unpopular opinions and I think we should at least refrain from down-voting when we just don't agree.

Think about a democracy. You can't down-vote, you always vote for something. People get "down-voted" (getting trialed and fined) when they act against the rules.

What I humbly recommend is sometimes actually up-voting a controversial comment that you disagree with as long as it is in-line with the conversation. That makes it more visible and it becomes more likely that there'll be a discussion under it it. I usually reply and up-vote when I disagree, just up-vote otherwise.

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

#39

Post by jack-r-abbit »

WritelyDesigned wrote: post #28

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 agre…

Also with "You are a sexist." Disagreeing with a person might have nothing to do with their sex/gender but is also an easy way to shut them down. People will be hesitant to agree with a person that was just labeled racist/sexist.

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

#40

Post by dsugarman »

I think I can speak from experience as someone who frequently gets downvoted (and upvoted). I think a lot of people do downvote for something that they disagree with, although I would imagine most would say they did it due to the post being useless. Also using humour here is a likely downvote.

I would have to imagine that the liberal downvoting for 'useless comments' actually detracts from the value of HN. Good thread here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8031898

Post reply on HN