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Why does playing devil's advocate loose you HN karma?
Shouldn't dissenting/minority opinions be promoted in the HN feed?
- NetTechM 10y agoSadly people do not appreciate debate anymore, they simply want to read statements that agree with whatever position they believe to be true, fair or what have you. I fear for a society that no longer collaborates and grows but rather shouts into its own comfortable echo chamber.
- minimaxir 10y agoIf you are referring to this comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11971989 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11971989) I wouldn't call that playing Devil's Advocate.
- rotrux 10y agoI wasn't, but kudos on the research! That was me giving my actual, relatively uneducated, position. Don't worry, I was corrected quickly. I misunderstood the nature of the exploit. I thought it was intrinsic to the way tor works, turns out it's a browser bug. Check out some of my other comments and posts. Also i just see a lot of unpopular comments go away quickly.
- MrZongle2 10y ago"Shouldn't dissenting/minority opinions be promoted in the HN feed?" Ideally, yes. But HN readers/commenters are human, just like those on other sites. It's a slightly more curated Reddit, with a less meme-y marquee, but the downvote button is abused just the same. It doesn't stop me from playing Devil's Advocate sometimes, though. I welcome the intelligent responses when I get them (and there are plenty of intelligent people here to provide them), and usually when I get downvoted without comment I take comfort in the fact that somebody has had their worldview challenged and is silently having a temper-tantrum somewhere. I certainly don't intend on it to be trolling, however. I think an intelligent, civil debate is its own reward...even if one is outmatched. :D
- rotrux 10y agoThank you! Terrific response.
- bifrost 10y agoTBH, I think it would have to be a pretty good stance to actually warrant promotion. If everyone who took an oppositional stance to issues was promoted I don't think regular discourse would continue to occurr.
- onion2k 10y agoPosting an honest opinion is enough. No one needs to "guide" the discussion. If everyone agrees then that's fine, it'll just be a very short thread. As for why you get downvoted, unless you're very good at communicating a post playing Devil's advocate looks pretty much exactly like a post espousing a contrary opinion for real. In other words, people can't tell you're playing Devil's advocate and they take you seriously.
- april1stislame 10y agoBecause this website is full of self-important assholes, that's why...