7 ms·

As I understand it, you cannot downvote a comment if: 1. You have too low a karma (points, look top right) 2. The comment is a reply to yours 3. The comment

by buro9 10y ago

As I understand it, you cannot downvote a comment if: 1. You have too low a karma (points, look top right) 2. The comment is a reply to yours 3. The comment is quite old 4. Something vague about a mechanism that stops you stalking someone and downvoting (spread the downvotes, don't focus them like a meanie) 5. It's already been downvoted to nothing (you can do it, but I think it has no effect) Generally, upvote the positive rather than downvote the negative.

RussianCow 10y ago
"Quite old" in this case seems to be about 8 hours, based on anecdotal evidence.
- sp332 10y ago
  It used to be 24 hours but it was shortened a couple of months ago.
- dwaltrip 10y ago
  That seems a bit extreme. Does anyone know the rational?
DanBC 10y ago
OP is asking if time length for item 3 has changed.
- jacquesm 10y ago
  It has, it is shorter than before.
JoeAltmaier 10y ago
Agreed! I reserve downvotes for unhelpful comments. Helpful comments should be about the topic, and not other commenters.
jacquesm 10y ago
6. The comment is a reply to a story you posted 7. You may think you are able to vote, but it may still be ignored
bradleyjg 10y ago
>> Generally, upvote the positive rather than downvote the negative. The exception, at least for me, is top level comments. They have so much power to shape the conversation that even a merely mediocre one should be downvoted.
- Bartweiss 10y ago
  There's at least one thread today (the toxic oil one) where the highest top-level comment was factually wrong, and clearly responding to the title without actually opening the article. Sure, it's possible to comment with a correction (people did), but it's an absolute waste of a comment thread to have the first experience be a bunch of people debunking gibberish. Downvoting plays an important role in sanitizing stuff that's going to waste time and prevent good discussion.
- danjoc 10y ago
  HN needs comment folding. I can ignore those discussions easily on reddit by simply folding the comment. I find down voting here to be quite arbitrary and at times really mean spirited. It's discouraging to know that people are doing it merely to order the posts.
  - jacquesm 10y ago
    It's in beta right now. Just a little while.
  - SCdF 10y ago
    I use the Hacker News Enhancement Suite Chrome extension for exactly that. (It also monkey with fonts and adds tagging a bunch more things, but I honestly only care about the comment folding).
  - kemayo 10y ago
    It's trivial to add via userscripts, at least: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/2960-hacker-news-collapsible-comments https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/2960-hacker-news-collapsib...
projectramo 10y ago
#2 is a great rule! I've noticed some (what I consider) vindictive voting. Good thinking. #4 interesting. That is thinking a few steps ahead.
zamalek 10y ago
Eventually #3 applies to upvotes too (I'm not sure what the time-frame is).
hammock 10y ago
I have also noticed what OP has noticed, and it's not covered under any of your above cases, which I was also previously aware of. To expand on OP, from what I have observed it's not just related to the newness of a comment, because I have seen new comments with downvote button right next to a slightly older comment with no downvote button (just for clarity, none of the five conditions above apply either, e.g. it's not a reply to mine, it's not already dead..). It also seems to affect top level comments more than others. The mystery remains. Edit: This thread has been banned from the front page. It was on the first page two minutes ago and now it's not even on page 2 or 3. Can only be found in Ask section. Why?
- DanBC 10y ago
  > Edit: This thread has been banned from the front page. It was on the first page two minutes ago and now it's not even on page 2 or 3. Can only be found in Ask section. Why? As far as I know it's almost always user flags. This is a meta thread, and so people flag it.

by buro9 10y ago

RussianCow 10y ago

"Quite old" in this case seems to be about 8 hours, based on anecdotal evidence.

sp332 10y ago
It used to be 24 hours but it was shortened a couple of months ago.
dwaltrip 10y ago
That seems a bit extreme. Does anyone know the rational?

DanBC 10y ago

OP is asking if time length for item 3 has changed.

jacquesm 10y ago
It has, it is shorter than before.

JoeAltmaier 10y ago

Agreed! I reserve downvotes for unhelpful comments. Helpful comments should be about the topic, and not other commenters.

jacquesm 10y ago

6. The comment is a reply to a story you posted 7. You may think you are able to vote, but it may still be ignored

bradleyjg 10y ago

>> Generally, upvote the positive rather than downvote the negative. The exception, at least for me, is top level comments. They have so much power to shape the conversation that even a merely mediocre one should be downvoted.

Bartweiss 10y ago
There's at least one thread today (the toxic oil one) where the highest top-level comment was factually wrong, and clearly responding to the title without actually opening the article. Sure, it's possible to comment with a correction (people did), but it's an absolute waste of a comment thread to have the first experience be a bunch of people debunking gibberish. Downvoting plays an important role in sanitizing stuff that's going to waste time and prevent good discussion.
danjoc 10y ago
HN needs comment folding. I can ignore those discussions easily on reddit by simply folding the comment. I find down voting here to be quite arbitrary and at times really mean spirited. It's discouraging to know that people are doing it merely to order the posts.
- jacquesm 10y ago
  It's in beta right now. Just a little while.
- SCdF 10y ago
  I use the Hacker News Enhancement Suite Chrome extension for exactly that. (It also monkey with fonts and adds tagging a bunch more things, but I honestly only care about the comment folding).
- kemayo 10y ago
  It's trivial to add via userscripts, at least: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/2960-hacker-news-collapsible-comments https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/2960-hacker-news-collapsib...

projectramo 10y ago

#2 is a great rule! I've noticed some (what I consider) vindictive voting. Good thinking. #4 interesting. That is thinking a few steps ahead.

zamalek 10y ago

Eventually #3 applies to upvotes too (I'm not sure what the time-frame is).

hammock 10y ago

I have also noticed what OP has noticed, and it's not covered under any of your above cases, which I was also previously aware of. To expand on OP, from what I have observed it's not just related to the newness of a comment, because I have seen new comments with downvote button right next to a slightly older comment with no downvote button (just for clarity, none of the five conditions above apply either, e.g. it's not a reply to mine, it's not already dead..). It also seems to affect top level comments more than others. The mystery remains. Edit: This thread has been banned from the front page. It was on the first page two minutes ago and now it's not even on page 2 or 3. Can only be found in Ask section. Why?

DanBC 10y ago
> Edit: This thread has been banned from the front page. It was on the first page two minutes ago and now it's not even on page 2 or 3. Can only be found in Ask section. Why? As far as I know it's almost always user flags. This is a meta thread, and so people flag it.