4 ms·

Downvoters should be required to cite their reasoning. This would presumaby hinder illogical, kneejerk, emotional downvotes. We are here to learn & understand

by bcook 11y ago

Downvoters should be required to cite their reasoning. This would presumaby hinder illogical, kneejerk, emotional downvotes. We are here to learn & understand (perhaps painfully), not anonymously persecute. Edit: I did not consciously realize the parent was "logicallee". ;)

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
pvg 11y ago
Downvoting is hardly persecution. It just means someone doesn't like your comment. They don't owe you an explanation and the site's author has explicitly stated one is not required. Think of what would happen if every downvote of a low-quality comment had to come with a polite note justifying the action. Noise explosion.
- danenania 11y ago
  On the other hand, downvoting isn't really supposed to reflect dislike or disagreement, but rather a comment that is rude, lacks substance or, is otherwise against the guidelines. Unfortunately this rule seems to be pretty universally ignored on HN these days. I'll generally re-upvote any reasonable post that I see has been downvoted simply due to expressing a contentious opinion, even if I also happen to disagree.
  - pvg 11y ago
    It's very much also supposed to reflect those. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171
- bcook 11y ago
  It is is bit off-putting that you think anything that you downvote will only respond with "noise explosion". Groupthink much?
  - pvg 11y ago
    What, exactly, is groupthink? If everyone had to explain their every downvote, the site would be unreadable.
    - bcook 11y ago
      "Groupthink" can be Googled. Are you learning anything from the unresponsive down-voters of your post? The only thing I learn from grey posts is that HN does not agree. Why they do not agree... I often have no idea why.
      - pvg 11y ago
        'Groupthink' makes zero sense in this discussion. As to the noise explosion, think about what we just did. You posted a bit of offtopic meta (breaking a site rule), I was stupid enough to reply (breaking a site rule), now you're throwing inscrutable condescending non-sequiturs at me (breaking a site rule). We've added a bunch of pointless noise to a thread on the topic "Yelp Posts Q4 Loss, CFO Resigns". Some thankless moderator will have to come clean up after us.
        bcook 11y ago
        Where can we talk about flaws in the Hacker News forum/comments?
        pvg 11y ago
        Threads that are about that seem like a good place. As you know, anyone can start a thread.
dang 11y ago
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11062422 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11062422 and marked it off-topic.

by bcook 11y ago

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

pvg 11y ago

Downvoting is hardly persecution. It just means someone doesn't like your comment. They don't owe you an explanation and the site's author has explicitly stated one is not required. Think of what would happen if every downvote of a low-quality comment had to come with a polite note justifying the action. Noise explosion.

danenania 11y ago
On the other hand, downvoting isn't really supposed to reflect dislike or disagreement, but rather a comment that is rude, lacks substance or, is otherwise against the guidelines. Unfortunately this rule seems to be pretty universally ignored on HN these days. I'll generally re-upvote any reasonable post that I see has been downvoted simply due to expressing a contentious opinion, even if I also happen to disagree.
- pvg 11y ago
  It's very much also supposed to reflect those. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171
bcook 11y ago
It is is bit off-putting that you think anything that you downvote will only respond with "noise explosion". Groupthink much?
- pvg 11y ago
  What, exactly, is groupthink? If everyone had to explain their every downvote, the site would be unreadable.
  - bcook 11y ago
    "Groupthink" can be Googled. Are you learning anything from the unresponsive down-voters of your post? The only thing I learn from grey posts is that HN does not agree. Why they do not agree... I often have no idea why.
    - pvg 11y ago
      'Groupthink' makes zero sense in this discussion. As to the noise explosion, think about what we just did. You posted a bit of offtopic meta (breaking a site rule), I was stupid enough to reply (breaking a site rule), now you're throwing inscrutable condescending non-sequiturs at me (breaking a site rule). We've added a bunch of pointless noise to a thread on the topic "Yelp Posts Q4 Loss, CFO Resigns". Some thankless moderator will have to come clean up after us.
      - bcook 11y ago
        Where can we talk about flaws in the Hacker News forum/comments?
        pvg 11y ago
        Threads that are about that seem like a good place. As you know, anyone can start a thread.

dang 11y ago

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11062422 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11062422 and marked it off-topic.