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Comment by mhartl | Hacker News Reader

    2. Participate!

I often participate, but when I don't it's usually for a simple reason: downvotes sting. This is so important that I would add it as a corollary to "9. Be nice":

    9a. Use downvotes sparingly.

I and my poor primate brain will thank you.

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  > when I don't it's usually for a simple reason:
  > downvotes sting

They do. But recently I am trying to use it as an opportunity to learn not to care too much what do random (or semi-random) people think about your opinion. Yep, someone will downvote. Not a big deal it is not like someone is hitting you on the head.I don't mean one should ignore all downvotes because sometimes it is healthy to think why are you really downvoted, but quite often downovtes come as a result of knee-jerk reaction, group-think or because someone just does not like you. That's another thing to learn: resist the urge to write "I know I will be downvoted for this". If you write this (of follow-up comment "why am I being downvoted?") you will be, by me, at least :)

I agree. Alas, my poor primate brain is often not so easily assuaged. But your attitude of viewing downvotes as an opportunity is very much in line with Stoic philosophy—an attitude, I think, worth cultivating.

I've learned to ignore the whole karma thing when writing a comment. It's part of the "be yourself": you can't write anything original in fear of being downvoted.

I do sometimes check back which comments were voted up (or down) for the sake of curiosity. I then wonder what was it that made one of my comments get many times more points than my average, but often it must simply be that I happened to comment early. I don't really care that much where my karma is going, it's more like a reflection of the community than a reflection of me.

the lack of a "red envelope" is offputting too - i very definitely find myself participating more in fora with comment reply notifications. unless i've just missed it altogether, all hn has is the rather clunky process of scanning your comment page to see if anything has garnered a new reply.

That's probably by design; it helps keep old conversations from going on forever.

yeah, I figured as much, but it still provides a barrier to having conversations at all, and hence reduces my engagement with the site.

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