I'm not going to downvote you, but that's an incredibly stupid reason to downvote someone.
"Oh, I don't like your word choice, so I'm going to downvote you regardless of the content."
"Oh, I don't like your word choice, so I'm going to downvote you regardless of the content."
Then again, if you are replying "This." perhaps the better way to go would be with a simple upvote. But that would really only be expressive if we could see vote counts again.
However, a content-free message of simply "this." does deserve a downvote.
Writing in leetspeek is equally objectionable, for instance, and people do downvote those who write that way on HN.
Explaining yourself and adding an original thought is contributing, but saying "This." is not contributing and degrades the quality of the post and HN in general.
> The issue isn't "word choice" it is tone and writing style. > Writing in leetspeek is equally objectionable, for instance, and people do downvote those who write that way on HN.
In my opinion, a comment that is simply "this." should get no votes at all, whereas a comment that is entirely in leetspeak should be downvoted into oblivion. Killing readability is a far greater sin than simply failing to realize that the upvote button exists for a reason.