5 ms·

Except down voting isn't denying the right to speech. It's simply expressing _your_ opinion of the value of said speech.

by jqm 11y ago

rntz 11y ago
Downvoting should be reserved for posts that do not contribute to the discussion, not used to express disagreement. The purpose of votes isn't to win a battle of beliefs, but to promote insightful discussion. Honestly I think HN would be better without downvoting at all.
- noobermin 11y ago
  This has been discussed before it looks like[0], but at least pg[1] has stated that he sees downvoting for expressing disagreement is acceptable. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3760275 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3760275 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171
- simoncion 11y ago
  > Honestly I think HN would be better without downvoting at all. I don't entirely agree with this statement. If you're going to be doing threaded conversations, having a system that can influence the sort order of those conversations isn't necessarily a bad thing. I've been thinking about HN's downvotes for a while now, and I kinda think -based on my overwhelmingly positive experience with the Pre-SJW Metafilter- that HN should either have strict time-based ordering for threads with up/downvotes only serving to give you Whuffie, or have up/downvotes control sort order, but not grey out comments that are below 1.
imron 11y ago
I didn't say denying him the right to speech, I said it was equivalent to trying to shout him out of the discussion. There are other ways to express your opinion of the value of said speech without trying to remove someone's ability to participate in the discussion.
ebola1717 11y ago
One could say protesting is also expressing your opinion on the value of racist costumes.
- imron 11y ago
  Yes! And in fact that is exactly what the Yale professor was trying to tell those students.
  - makomk 11y ago
    After sending out a letter arguing that asking students to think about what their Halloween costumes were saying was an attack on free speech because it might make white students uncomfortable wearing blackface, and that doing so was somehow attacking the university tradition and discouraging a vitally important kind of provocative, offensive speech.
    - imron 11y ago
      That's a rather uncharitable summary of the contents of the email. The email wasn't saying that white students should be able to wear blackface without feeling uncomfortable - in fact it said the opposite - that social norming (e.g. making people feel uncomfortable for wearing offensive costumes) was the way to deal with the problem, rather than the university dictating what students should/shouldn't wear.

Except down voting isn't denying the right to speech. It's simply expressing _your_ opinion of the value of said speech.

by jqm 11y ago

Except down voting isn't denying the right to speech. It's simply expressing _your_ opinion of the value of said speech.

rntz 11y ago

Downvoting should be reserved for posts that do not contribute to the discussion, not used to express disagreement. The purpose of votes isn't to win a battle of beliefs, but to promote insightful discussion. Honestly I think HN would be better without downvoting at all.

noobermin 11y ago
This has been discussed before it looks like[0], but at least pg[1] has stated that he sees downvoting for expressing disagreement is acceptable. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3760275 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3760275 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171
simoncion 11y ago
> Honestly I think HN would be better without downvoting at all. I don't entirely agree with this statement. If you're going to be doing threaded conversations, having a system that can influence the sort order of those conversations isn't necessarily a bad thing. I've been thinking about HN's downvotes for a while now, and I kinda think -based on my overwhelmingly positive experience with the Pre-SJW Metafilter- that HN should either have strict time-based ordering for threads with up/downvotes only serving to give you Whuffie, or have up/downvotes control sort order, but not grey out comments that are below 1.

imron 11y ago

I didn't say denying him the right to speech, I said it was equivalent to trying to shout him out of the discussion. There are other ways to express your opinion of the value of said speech without trying to remove someone's ability to participate in the discussion.

ebola1717 11y ago

One could say protesting is also expressing your opinion on the value of racist costumes.

imron 11y ago
Yes! And in fact that is exactly what the Yale professor was trying to tell those students.
- makomk 11y ago
  After sending out a letter arguing that asking students to think about what their Halloween costumes were saying was an attack on free speech because it might make white students uncomfortable wearing blackface, and that doing so was somehow attacking the university tradition and discouraging a vitally important kind of provocative, offensive speech.
  - imron 11y ago
    That's a rather uncharitable summary of the contents of the email. The email wasn't saying that white students should be able to wear blackface without feeling uncomfortable - in fact it said the opposite - that social norming (e.g. making people feel uncomfortable for wearing offensive costumes) was the way to deal with the problem, rather than the university dictating what students should/shouldn't wear.