I am so tired of reading hacker news articles with comments that are so pushed down because of subjective opinionated voting that is so obviously skewed towards one personality type.
I have so many thoughts and opinions I want to contribute to these discussions but I have zero confidence it will fit within this type of environment that's been created.
It really saddens me to see some of the comments that get downvoted here.
At its worst, I've seen people get down voted for asking beginner level questions. The calibre of folk who post here can, by its nature, make commenting a nervous activity. Getting down voted for trying to expand your knowledge is both harmful and wrong.
If I see a comment down voted without the above properties, I up vote to neutralise whether I agree or not. If the comment contributes to debate or discussion, it should be valued. I know I value alternate perspectives.
The fact that down votes are silent makes things worse. Great, you've been down voted. Why? Ask why, down vote again. It's almost a recipe for gradual shaping to conformity of group opinion for anyone who wants to participate here. It can then come across as say these things, don't say these things and you'll be sailing.
I don't know, perhaps an explanatory comment should be encouraged so that real education happens. Otherwise its almost Pavlovian in nature, especially for the less confident and highly anxious.
Given the way HN is designed (comments are ranked, low scores get grayed out, user karma scores are visible) if people downvote to express disagreement it would worsen the experience of reading comments, and, I suspect, the overall conversation.