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Comment by musicale | Hacker News Reader

> In downvoting discussions, the top post will represent the consensus of the people engaged in the discussion

I wish I saw more consensus - things that are agreed upon by multiple sides - but in practice I tend to see a tyranny of the majority - whoever can win the upvote vs. downvote contest. The winning side rises to the top, while dissenting voices are silenced.

One sensible thing that I thought HN did but I don't see immediately in the guidelines is to suggest that downvoting isn't supposed to be a "dislike" button but is intended for comments that are spam, trolling, etc..

On HN, the first post to gather a lot of replies also seems to rise to the top.

View on HN

IMO there should be 3 voting options

I agree, I disagree, Noise/bullshit

The problem to me is I want to read things I don't agree with but I don't want to read bullshit.

I would especially love to read ideas with an even amount of agree / disagree but a low bullshit amount. Not just sum all this to zero and hide it. That is terrible.

Actually, Slashdot's system was the best, with Flamebait/Troll/Funny/Informative/Insightful options, with only a limited number of votes (they called it "moderation points") available on a given day (this was more complex, you didn't get mod points every day), and a meta-moderation system allowing to rate the way people voted on any given comment.

I agree. Many times well written and relevant comments are down voted because many people have a different strong opinion on that while noise/meme comments climb to the top because they are funny and don't trigger people.

Since upvoting presumably promotes a post, and "noise/bullshit" presumably penalizes it, what would "I disagree" actually do?

You might say that HN already has this system, distinguishing between downvoting and "flagging".

It would presumably have a lower weight.

If "Agree" is +1, "Disagree" is -1, "Shit take/bad faith/troll" is -2, and "report" is threats of violence or spam.

>downvoting isn't supposed to be a "dislike" button but is intended for comments that are spam, trolling, etc.

That rule actually rigs the system in favor of irresponsible voters.

The solution to tyranny of the majority is NOT to hide down-voted comments and provide sorting options. Big problem with reddit is that it hides comments below certain threshold essentially silencing minority opinions.

> below certain threshold essentially silencing minority opinions

These are not minority opinions, but unpopular opinions. Just because something is downvoted to hell and hidden, doesn't mean it's a minority.

A minority opinion is one which few people have, not one which is downvoted by the majority.

If you have a forum with 100 people and your opinion is downvoted by 50 your opinion is (within that forum) the minority opinion.

That doesn't necessarily mean this opinion is a minority opinion in the real world. In fact it doesn't even have to mean those who downvoted don't share your opinion, they might have downvoted you for a heap of reasons (maybe you were rude, or they saw your comment as pointless, maybe they downvoted every comment except their own, etc.)

Your second paragraph invalidates the first. What if all 50 of those people agree with you, but are downvoting you for another reason?

Then you might be in an (possible, but unlikely) edge case scenario and should applaude the complexity of reality surrounding us.

The truth is, you can never be sure if your opinion is minority or majority within any online forum just by looking at up/downvotes of one post in isulation.

A minority opinion is downvoted by the majority because the majority disagrees with the minority opinion.

>sensible thing that...HN did...is to suggest that downvoting isn't supposed to be a "dislike" button

reddit says that too, as do other discussion forums, to no effect, same as here.

reddit has a contested mode that is quite nice to balance the winner take all approach that seems to plague all other systems.

Another thing I have noticed is SO, that remove "karma" for each downvote you action (Note that I have seem that behaviour documented).

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