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It seems to be a common opinion on Hacker News that you shouldn't write a comment just saying "I agree"; that's what the upvote arrow is for.

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If that's what the upvote arrow is for then I may have been using it wrongly; I often upvote comments that I disagree with, if they add something to the discussion.

(I'm with you on not simply commenting "I agree", which is what I assume the gpp said. It would be good to add something to the discussion as well)

No I believe you're right on this (though I'm not a particularly heavy HN user). Upvoting things you agree with implies that you should downvote things you don't agree with and that really isn't appropriate.

The upvote has two uses:

1) interesting comment that contributes to discussion with which I may or may not agree with.

2) I agree.

The first use case is preferable to the second one. If you happen to agree with a comment that isn't interesting nor contributes anything to the discussion, then maybe your agreement with it is irrelevant as well.

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