Hacker News Reader

Comment by arikr | Hacker News Reader

That's one way to view it, certainly.

The other way is that downvotes are a great tool for ensuring high quality discussion, and if the thread is about podcast episodes, then downvoting full podcasts helps keep the thread organized. Downvotes aren't necessarily bad, they may just mean - hey, this doesn't belong as much in this thread, so I'm voting on it to help organize the thread for other readers.

View on HN

Although they wrote "episodes" in their title, the OP then listed two podcasts as examples to start the discussion ( Invest Like the Best https://investlikethebest.libsyn.com/ , and FYI https://open.spotify.com/show/0xOdWuktBQKWCv2mlVjizn ). As such, it seems quite a stretch to conclude they want us to limit our responses to specific episodes of podcasts.

HN’s rules seem like they fall in line with positive psychology tenants. In the spirit of HN, downvotes seem like something reserved for mean spirited or inaccurate posts. If everyone downvotes for differences in purely subjective opinion, well, I’d just stick to reddit in that case.

dang and sctb have stated several times that it's OK to downvote for disagreement on HN. On the other hand, on Reddit it goes against Reddiquette (as published by Reddit) to do that - though of course it's very common.

Agreed. I wish everyone who posted an entire podcast would have at least recommended a single impactful episode, especially as a place to start for those of us who haven't listened to the podcast at all.

Many podcasts are now released as a limited series or as seasons, best consumed from start to finish. “13 Minutes to the Moon,” “Man in the Window” and “In the Dark.” Come to mind. No less impactful and would be strange to recommend anything but the entire podcast, particularly since OP suggested full podcasts.

"What's your favorite podcast" is a vastly less interesting and different question to answer. Impactful episodes can even appear in podcasts you generally dislike or don't agree with.

The OP lists two examples of podcasts (not episodes) to open the thread. I think you misunderstood their intention.

or just don’t vote on things you don’t like and you get the same effect

This. As far as I know, on HN downvotes are supposed to be for non-constructive comments and a moderation tool more than a "I disagree" or "I dislike this" button. That is probably why you only get the option to downvote after you gained >1k points.

Exactly. "Back in the day" I remember that on HN if your post wasn't a 3 paragraph story with a well-defined point and arguments you would be downvoted into oblivion.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com