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Comment by yankeeracer73 | Hacker News Reader

Since we aren't all standing in a room having a real conversation, the only way I can tell if people are going to agree or disagree with me is an up or down vote. "I'll probably get downvoted for this" is another way of saying "the predominant opinion here is x but i'm going to state y." My intent wasn't purposely to avoid downvotes (or get more upvotes,) but point taken.

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> Since we aren't all standing in a room having a real conversation, the only way I can tell if people are going to agree or disagree with me is an up or down vote.

Apart from some tense confusion, yes.

> I'll probably get downvoted for this" is another way of saying "the predominant opinion here is x but i'm going to state y."

Yes, that is another way to say that. The point is that saying that gets annoying.

If you're about to say something for which you feel the need to apologize, don't say it. Double that if the apology is a pose. (No, it's not polite or "civil".)

Respect the readers.

Respect the readers is a good point. By starting with that sentence you're essentially saying:

Before I say what I think might add to the conversation here's me talking about how I care more about my karma than the conversation itself.

It isn't something anyone but you cares about so why not just leave it out?

The upvote/downvote arrows aren't for disagreement, they're for adds to the discussion/does not add to the discussion. That's the proper reddiquette at reddit as well. Unfortunately, it's generally ignored there, but Hacker News is usually better.

I don't see an official guideline about this, but I've seen pg mention many times that he doesn't have a problem with downvoting in disagreement.

See: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=392347

I stand corrected and surprised. I also note that underneath both of those posts are people saying that they disagree with this policy, both with more upvotes than PG. Perhaps it's best if the community agrees that downvotes should not mean disagreement?

This whole discussion is getting rather off topic though. Does someone want to make a meta-topic for this, or should we leave it alone?

No, the general way to disagree is to post a reply much like this one that says I disagree.

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