Ask HN: Downvoting comments you disapprove? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Downvoting comments you disapprove?

15 pointssirwitti18 comments

if somebody is flaming or rude i understand downvoting but in the hightly active post "why i don't give you a job" (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3436244) i saw some comments (not offending or whatever) without replies an negative points.

not that i care too much about my karma, but why do some hn users downvote comments they simply disagree?

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Negative votes (or down votes) are the worst thing ever invented. Their purpose is punishing comments (or news, or whatever) which are bad: spam, rude, unrelated... But, instead, people use them for punishing ideas they don't agree with.

I write in somewhat big blog with a considerable number of comments, and I see this everyday. A pretty good comment gets downvoted (and, in the end, hidden) only for not agreeing with some idea. Comments also get downvoted because some people don't like the commenter.

I think negative votes should be removed. You only have a "vote" button: you like the comment, you vote it. Don't like the comment? Ignore it. Of course, I would add instead a "report" button, so you can still manage spam and rude comments.

I personally would rather see a three control system, upvote = i like this; disagree = I disagree; and downvote = person is being a jerk. I think that is the issue people upvote to say I like this so it is easy to see the downvote as the opposite as opposed to a tangential, this is abusive. I think a three control system would clarify it. Unlike the upvotes and the downvotes I think the karma of I disagree should be displayed and people should be able to set personal thresholds on disagrees before they are greyed out.

That's the Like button.

Maybe that's the solution. Negative votes do not promote healthy conversation if they're used like sirwitti explains. Here in HN they are more or less working, but HN is a very special place.

Probably because they are Reddit users who think downvoting is normal behavior. Keep doing what you are doing (upvote the good stuff, ignore the majority of comments and [perhaps] downvote rude and spam comments) and maybe they will go away again...

Downvoting on reddit is actually reserved for comments that don't contribute to the conversation and isn't to be used for disagreeing with a comment. Anyway, blaming reddit users for all the negative shit that happens here is seriously getting old.

That's how it's intended to be used on Reddit, sadly it's not really how it's actually used on the larger subreddits. Seeing as Reddit is a big recruiter for HN, it should come as no surprise that reddit user cause a lot of the "negative shit". Of course, they also contribute a lot of positive comments/articles.

ah, i didn't think of reddit. thanks!

Most downvotes are editorial feedback - they mean something along the lines of your point was not clearly communicated, your argument was unsound, or the comment did not contribute positively toward the dialog.

Sometimes downvotes are for disagreement. Particularly when the comment is contrary to someone's agenda.

If the former is the case, consider revising or deleting your post to address the issue; if the latter, consider the source [it's the internet].

BTW, it's pretty much always bad form to complain about downvotes on HN.

I try to counter the inappropriate down votes. I use a user style sheet to change the color of down voted comments from the hard to read grays to an easy to see red. This makes down voted comments really stand out.

Then, unless they are offensive or just plain stupid, I up vote them even if don't agree with them or think they are particularly noteworthy, just to try to counter the down votes.

This is most likely due to people trying to push down comments and these comments sitting at 1 point score. This creates a gray comment and the crowd heaps on and buries it without giving much further thought.

HN should really mark 1-point comments in some way. This is long due.

I just don't like how only select members have the ability to downvote.

If downvoting exists on the forum all members should be able to do so. imo

I already deal with a lot of mystery downvotes on completely non-offensive comments. I've been stalled at around 1900 for months because every gain I make vanishes without explanation. I don't think opening the floodgates would make things better.

I agree, I am able to downvote and I take it seriously, there is a culture with HN and it takes time to understand that culture and customs. I would probably not have been as responsible with downvotes when I was at say 500. I would agree that somewhere after 1500-2000 is probably the sweet spot, I also think any karma from article submissions should be excluded from calculating the ability to downvote, because 1500-2000 can be hit pretty quick if you submit several front page articles.

I wonder what the karma threshold for downvoting is these days. Maybe it needs a bump.

Somewhere below 1902, but not above. I think I have a decent handle on when it's appropriate to click down. 2000 is probably a good place to put the threshold.

Last I heard, 500.

The problem is that most people that left comments on that story basically jumped on the "I won't hire a woman" comment at the beginning and only focused on that. The article was really not about that.

What the author was trying to express is how the laws in Hungary make it very difficult for an entrepreneur to start a company. He goes on, at length and in much detail, to clearly express the many ways that its un-economical for him to go down the route of trying to start a company or to hire more employees if he is running a company now.

So to your question about being downvoted, I might be able to provide an answer.

I responded to a similar comment as your original, http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3436365. It got 16 upvotes. To me, that indicates that lots of people who read my comment agreed with me and my understanding of the article, i.e. not being about women but about over-reaching laws in Hungary.

Your comment was in the vein of talking about the women/older person angle. Seeing that many similar comments were also being downvoted, it seems logical that is partly why yours was too.

Also, your comment asks an open-ended question that isn't directly related to the intent of the original article. Questions in comments are fine, but its best if they stay oriented towards points related to the topic. In this case, work/life balance versus the effects of extensive government regulation on business.

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