I've been wondering why humorous comments are so rare on HN, and this one just got downvoted. Is there a rule that comments should be serious?
Anyway this was at least half serious so not a good example I suppose.
Anyway this was at least half serious so not a good example I suppose.
My criteria for upvoting a joke are generally the same as my criteria for upvoting any other comment: if I feel it adds something to the discussion, it gets an upvote. If I feel like it contributes nothing at all, it gets a downvote, because reading it is a waste of someone's time.
Most of the jokes posted here are surface humor. They are relatively obvious and add nothing to the discussion, and so I downvote quite a lot of them.
Occasionally someone will use humor to make a good point, and then I will upvote them. In general I'd discourage it, though--it's usually much easier and clearer to just say what you mean, and people here are usually receptive to well-argued points.
I've had funny comments upvoted (and a few I thought were funny downvoted, but c'est la vie).
( I always liked this one: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=458155 )