I recently realized that I rarely upvote or downvote so I decided to be more of a good community citizen and start doing so. Then came the question of what does an upvote or downvote mean? Do I downvote an opinion I disagree with even though it is interesting and well reasoned? (By some reasoning, perhaps I should actually be upvoting such comments). I'm obviously overthinking here but I'm curious so indulge me. What is your heuristic for up/down-voting?
Readit News
If they're wrong then they won't accumulate upvotes. It's like comedy - if it's funny, people will laugh, if it's not, then they won't. This is why I'm not particularly a fan of the increasing unreadability of downvoted comments - it feels like silencing people. It also gives undue influence to the first readers of the piece and allows individuals or groups with agendas to target and downvote things they don't like with the aim of getting it taken out of the conversation early. I do unfortunately observe this behaviour on contentious topics more regularly than I would like.
If you don't agree with a comment, you should either just ignore it, leave a comment stating why you disagree or ask why the commentator has come to that conclusion. This is far more likely to have a positive impact than downvoting, which is only going to make someone feel attacked, alienated and misunderstood.
On Reddit, downvoting is always a matter of personal opinion, and so it took me a while to adjust to the downvoting style HN advocates for. But I'm mostly used to it now and I have to say I enjoy it. It makes me have to think more critically about why I want to downvote something. Many times I have stopped myself from downvoting something solely because I disagreed, not because it was hateful, racist, etc.
dang explicitly refutes this:
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15310088>
Downvoting content that runs afoul of HN guidelines and/or drags discussions in uninteresting directions is functioning as intended:
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22891768>
(Searching Algolia with "by:dang <terms>" (in comments) is a useful way to check for moderator views on a particular topic or question.)
"by:dang downvote disagree" <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...>
> Please don't [...] Downvote an otherwise acceptable post because you don't personally like it
By trying to argue that is a completely lost cause. Most redditors think the purpose of a downvote is to indicate disagreement.
[0] https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/205926439-R...
edit for source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171
I'm a work in progress and striving to be better and I think that's all you can ask of anyone really. We're all at various stages of development and none of us know what's going on in the life of the people we're talking to. You could be speaking to a teenager with very little life experience who's just ignorant and doesn't really understand the consequences of the position they're arguing for or you could have someone in the 60s who's just lost their spouse and had their whole life come crashing down around them. Downvoting is going to help neither of these people, but leaving a comment might. In the case of the former, what's obvious to you isn't so obvious to them, so you can help enlighten. In the case of the latter, sometimes if you can say the right thing or ask the right question it can help them right themselves.
It doesn't even have to be that extreme, I've had plenty of debates on here that end up arriving at a point of mutual agreement which is always nice and often leads to growth on both sides.
Deleted Comment
that's how i felt initially when i got downvotes. but eventually i got used to it and as time went on i noticed that comments that were downvoted were usually more opinionated in the sense that it was reasonable and to be expected for someone to disagree. and realizing that made it much easier to accept the downvote as just that, a disagreement.
now it gets really interesting when i get a downvote and later an upvote. then i always wonder did the initial downvoter change their mind, or did someone else upvote. sometimes i'd really like to know.
for myself i downvote comments that i strongly disagree with and also comments that demonstrate a lack of understanding of the comment they respond to, or look like they are not reading the parent comment in good faith, or are belaboring their point, especially when it is clear that the other party already understood them the first time. in other words i downvote what i think are bad contributions to a discussion.
I upvote comments that I think are particularly interesting and downvote comments I think aren't worth reading (criteria: factual errors or inflammatory language/positions, like blatant racism).
Comments I disagree with (e.g. somebody claiming distributed blockchains or crypto currency have some sort of value) I just ignore (I have never seen such comments combined with racism, so wouldn't downvote).
I downvote comments that attack or degrade people ad-hominem and such or that derail the topic or try to bait people.
I can upvote (or downvote) for content that I agree/disagree with as well as how much the comment does/doesn't contribute to the debate, as you suggest. Sometimes those are finely enough balanced for me not to do either!
I tend to reserve downvotes for things that are inflammatory or shallow or dishonest or similar.
I still cannot downvote... What means I am only allowed to have a positive attitude with other's comments.
P.D. What karma do you actually need to gain the right to downvote?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7606145
Here is a nice list of HN features. https://github.com/minimaxir/hacker-news-undocumented/blob/m...
Seen frequent references to 500 though.
Upvote thoughtful / substantive comments, regardless of personal opinion. Downvote unthoughtful / unsubstantive comments, regardless of personal opinion.
On other platforms, I have come to believe that it is healthier for me to reply to content that I feel good about upvoting, and just moving on if I am tempted to downvote.