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Comment by podgaj | Hacker News Reader

Why am I being down voted for a question?

Sorry I am old and new to Hacker News but I have a Phd. Am I doing something wrong?

Welcome to HN! I'm not an expert on the subject, nor am I anybody important here, but give it time. Sometimes downvotes are accidental, sometimes it takes a while for a refutation to make it clear what was wrong, sometimes you just never find out. Best to just take it in stride as something random until more information is available.

Thanks!

You can add a blurb about your credentials to help with down votes. For example, lead with "I have a PhD in <subject>" when your creds are applicable to the case you're trying to make.

Also, votes are just fake internet points. No need to worry about them too much :)

There is a lot more drive by downvoting than there used to be.

It takes an open mind to openly entertain a viewpoint that isn’t ones own.

Also takes an open mind to say just because I don’t understand/agree with something, it doesn’t mean there can’t be understanding in it.

The drive by downvoting is out of control. I wish they changed it from a threshold of 500 to a threshold of 500 and you’re only allowed to downvote accounts that came after you until you get to like 2000 points or something like that.

Basically we need a mechanism to mitigate the impact of eternal September. There are too many new people with downvote ability changing the culture here for the worse. What’s insane is the number of times I see people downvoted for simply asking for sources/citations/references/ evidence/etc.

I agree that downvoting feels like it's got a lot worse.

People claim that pg said it's not a problem. But he has said that it needed to be addressed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1057347

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2403716

The problem isn't just downvoting, it's also that not enough people are upvoting reasonable-but-gray comments.

The problem isn't just downvoting, it's also that not enough people are upvoting reasonable-but-gray comments.

FWIW this is the majority of my upvoting, and I'd encourage others to do the same.

I would suggest that any down or up votes must be accompanied with a reason and reply then, yes? Or maybe just get rid of the voting and let the comments speak for themselves.

Drive-by downvoting of quality or interesting comments usually are offset by upvotes in any marginally popular post. Don't worry about it. Points here mean much less than they do on sites like Stack Overflow and Reddit.

Not worried at all .. OP had lamented.

In terms of the type of behaviour that should be encouraged on YC.. celebrating a diversity of understanding, belief and practice should be OK in a community of individuals wanting to build things that are different.

OP had reflected out loud :)

That would be interesting. Maybe also limiting the number of downvotes per period.

podgaj - have you checked out https://www.reddit.com/r/COVID19/? It a well moderated discussion thread focused solely on the science. You will find it a little saner there.

You're most likely penalized for some kind of wrongthink, don't worry about it.

Upvoted.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com