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

Is HN only about saying nice things about everything?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 125 posts

Re: Is HN only about saying nice things about everything?

#71

Post by karmawhore »

Charuru wrote: post #45

I downvote people that I disagree with. It's never because it's too honest or too negative or too rude, I don't care about that. I downvote if I think it's wrong or misinformed. This applies to nearly every one of your comments on Microsoft.

Too many people downvote people that they disagree with which is the downfall of a karma based system. What if you disagree, but they are right? Why do you dislike the fact that someone may have an opinion that differs from yours?

Downvoting people you disagree with implies that you are always right. I bow down to your perfection.

Re: Is HN only about saying nice things about everything?

#72

Post by Groxx »

Seems to me a fair number of your non-positive comments have been upvoted. If you dropped a lot, it could be from the / any -4 troll-claiming. Points only display to -4, but they can go much lower.

But yes. Critical comments: frequently upvoted. Non-critical, negative comments: essentially worthless for the sake of discussion, and are frequently downvoted here. Not many other places online, but I think it's part of why the community is in general so much more useful and mature than many others.

Re: Is HN only about saying nice things about everything?

#73

Post by kls »

100+ user doesn't like he can simply downvote you irresponsibly

I personally, think the downvote activation should be a combination of length of membership and karma. It does seem that as of late, there has been an increase in "I don't agree with you, so down you go".

I am with you on this one, there is a specific subject I talk about a lot on here "JavaScript based UI's", I have been doing web development since about the day after TBL released Mosaic (That is not an exaggeration) and it is my opinion that the web was broken shortly after we moved from CGI post to server side web frameworks that introduces state.

I think the JavaScript UI's and REST bring web apps back into the original architecture of the web and that they bring us back to the architecture that was started so long ago.

Anyway, I am getting off on a tangent. There are a good deal of developers who disagree with this, some instead of forming a rebuttal use the down arrow as their rebuttal.

For me personally I see it, when used in that context, as a "I don't have a strong rebuttal, so I will try to make you post go away" line of reasoning. I had one guy get so annoyed at me, that he went in and bombed me on any post that he and I did not have an exchange on (you can not down vote if you reply to a post).

To me those kinds of actions are site killers, fortunately for HN, it has not reached a critical mass, and it still has a good deal of intellectuals looking for good conversation. I have just chalked it up to, oh well you take you licks. At the point that all of my post get downvoted then I will know that I have been voted off the island, and that it is time for me to leave, which is fine as the community will not be representative of the people I am looking to interact with. As of yet that is not the case, so I just go with the flow.

Re: Is HN only about saying nice things about everything?

#74

Post by fleitz »

akadien wrote: post #37

Dude, it's karma points on HN. A number on a server somewhere that has no bearing whatsoever on your real life. Have some perspective.

I have to agree with you on this point. I caught myself caring the other day as I picked up a -4 on a comment. Then I had to relax and realize it was just a number. If a bunch of people disagree or think it was trollish then so be it.

Re: Is HN only about saying nice things about everything?

#75

Post by dasil003 »

lkrubner wrote: post #13

I wrote about this on my own blog, and someone from Hacker News came and posted a highly critical comment about me. They concluded: "The reason you were downvoted and will continue to be downvoted is because you don’t discuss topics with any intellectual integrity." The comment was interesting since it was such a pure, mirror reflection of what the commenter was doing. For instance, they posted anonymously, whereas I…

I upvoted this because I think it's an interesting discussion despite the fact that I disagree.

Let me ask you this: Can you think of any online discussion boards with better discussion than HN? The reason I ask is because my its nature I think Internet discourse always devolves into a garbage as a function of community size. Another way of putting it is that you can have a good Internet community as long as it doesn't get too big. In my mind HN is a notable exception in that it is large enough that it should be complete crap, but the core values of the community have held the line longer than could normally be expected.

Even reddit or slashdot, which I would hold up as having quite a few intelligent commenters, still gets drowned out by the in-humour and mindless memetics. So despite being far from perfect, I still consider HN the best discussion on the net.

Re: Is HN only about saying nice things about everything?

#76

Post by steveklabnik »

gord wrote: post #63

I mostly agree. I think we need to accept some false positives [such as foul language] in order to preserve a reasonable level of freedom of speech on HN. Here I mean freedom of speech in the weak form, ie. that you stop posting something you truly believe, because of fear it will attract down-votes. Useful ideas/opinions that occur in the long tail may offend some people - but I think HN is too uniform and PC withou…

People use foul language all the time, and get upoted: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1636262

Re: Is HN only about saying nice things about everything?

#78

Post by greatgoof »

Charuru wrote: post #45

I downvote people that I disagree with. It's never because it's too honest or too negative or too rude, I don't care about that. I downvote if I think it's wrong or misinformed. This applies to nearly every one of your comments on Microsoft.

That sir, I believe, is the incorrect way to do it. I may believe in capitalism, and I may believe that communism is wrong and someone who supports it is misinformed. But that should not mean that I downvote all comments extolling the merits of communism. I try to keep in mind that what the commentor wrote is his/her opinion and if that comment is well-written and adds value to the discussion, it should be upvoted and encouraged.

Long story short, comments that add value, contribute positively to discussion and are insightful need to be encouraged. My stand on the topic should have no bearing.

Re: Is HN only about saying nice things about everything?

#79

Post by julsonl »

karmawhore wrote: post #71
Charuru wrote: post #45

I downvote people that I disagree with. It's never because it's too honest or too negative or too rude, I don't care about that. I downvote if I think it's wrong or misinformed. This applies to nearly every one of your comments on Microsoft.

Too many people downvote people that they disagree with which is the downfall of a karma based system. What if you disagree, but they are right? Why do you dislike the fact that someone may have an opinion that differs from yours? Downvoting people you disagree with implies that you are always right. I bow down to your perfection.

You forgot to read the part where he mentioned downvoting because the information was wrong or misinformed. The same way I'll get downvoted if I furiously debated that an apple's color is always blue.

Re: Is HN only about saying nice things about everything?

#80

Post by kls »

akadien wrote: post #37

Dude, it's karma points on HN. A number on a server somewhere that has no bearing whatsoever on your real life. Have some perspective.

I don't know about it not being important, I have made several important connections on HN that I don't think would have happened if I had little to no Karma. I have helped two individuals on here with advice on their start-ups offline from HN, I have worked with another to help him advance himself personally. I have picked up a few freelance gigs on HN. And I have expanded my network.

I feel confidence that if I where in a pinch, I could call on the community to help me find some contract work if need be.

To say that it is just some virtual bits floating around somewhere is to discount the real world connections that this site provides and I think Kara at some level serves as you credibility when making those connections, just like everything else, it is what you make of it.

The constant focus on not being adversarial promotes an environment of collaboration over competition, in which the individual members feel a bond of tribe among one another and therefore look to help one another out. I have to say it is a refreshing break from some of the rudely arrogant attitudes that are tolerated and sometimes promoted on some other sites.

Post reply on HN