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Ask HN: Is someone down-voting all my comments because they don't like me?

12 points by throwaway98237 10y ago

Perhaps a good feature to add to HN would be some check on down-voting that watches out for when a single person down-votes another persons comments in mass in a short period of time, or on a sustained basis. Revenge down-voting, that is.

NumberCruncher 10y ago
Why do you care at all? Seneca said that if you publish something you have to bear the critics.
- spoiledtechie 10y ago
  they are talking about revenge downvoting. Not just a critic. But a critic that down votes one person..
  - NumberCruncher 10y ago
    - Revenge downvoting is childish. Caring about it is too. - There is no real difference, only in your head. Pick the answer that makes you feel better.
savethefuture 10y ago
Sounds as if you have alternative motives to know who down-votes you.
kisna72 10y ago
Suggestion: create a new profile and test if downvoting happens due to you or the article you post?
gknoy 10y ago
I was under the impression that voting rings and whatnot are already something that dang and the other mods watch out for; we as users don't need to see who downvotes us. If we could see identifiable information about downvotes, it would be too tempting to downvote THEM out of revenge. I don't think I would do such a thing, but I don't even want to have such knowledge color my reading of future comments. Part of the intention of HN is that we read and vote on comments for their merits and contribution to a discussion -- even if we don't always agree with the author -- and I would not want to discount someone's writing just because they downvoted something I wrote. Maybe if there were a one-way hash of usernames we could see for who downvotes, we could have public insight into the insight of voter rings ("____ has downvoted my comments 3000% more than anyone else ...") without the chance of contaminating our perception of others' discourse, but I doubt that we have better info than the mods already have about posters.
Taylor_OD 10y ago
This seems to be an issue with any type of site. I had a similar problem with Reddit. I found that eventually people lose interest. At the end of the day losing internet points isnt the end of the world.
jshevek 10y ago
>. when a single person down-votes another persons comments in mass in a short period of time, or on a sustained basis. Revenge down-voting, that is. You are assuming a person's motives based only on behavior.
notacoward 10y ago
In a very rare exception to Betteridge's Law, I'd say the answer to your question is probably yes. The more interesting question is how long they'll be able to get away with it. As others point out, the mods already try to detect and prevent abuse of the upvote/downvote mechanisms. OTOH it's not clear how well automated that process is, or how effective their efforts are. It certainly seems to me that coordinated upvoting and downvoting are still pretty much par for the course on this and any other similar site.
mixmastamyk 10y ago
Don't have proof but I believe there is a limit to how many times you can up/downvote each account.
surething 10y ago
… would the overall "economics" of HN make sense if a down-vote cost 1 point of reputation, or some fraction thereof?
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
yread 10y ago
I had an opposite problem once, somebody was blindly upvoting my silly comments. Luckily, it didn't last long so I didn't have to post an Ask HN
vorotato 10y ago
What if all of your comments are terrible? I mean I'm not saying they are, but if your comments are regularly not very productive you'll see down voting but there's no individual actor doing it.
Vanit 10y ago
I wonder if it's because of your username?

NumberCruncher 10y ago

Why do you care at all? Seneca said that if you publish something you have to bear the critics.

spoiledtechie 10y ago
they are talking about revenge downvoting. Not just a critic. But a critic that down votes one person..
- NumberCruncher 10y ago
  - Revenge downvoting is childish. Caring about it is too. - There is no real difference, only in your head. Pick the answer that makes you feel better.

savethefuture 10y ago

Sounds as if you have alternative motives to know who down-votes you.

kisna72 10y ago

Suggestion: create a new profile and test if downvoting happens due to you or the article you post?

gknoy 10y ago

I was under the impression that voting rings and whatnot are already something that dang and the other mods watch out for; we as users don't need to see who downvotes us. If we could see identifiable information about downvotes, it would be too tempting to downvote THEM out of revenge. I don't think I would do such a thing, but I don't even want to have such knowledge color my reading of future comments. Part of the intention of HN is that we read and vote on comments for their merits and contribution to a discussion -- even if we don't always agree with the author -- and I would not want to discount someone's writing just because they downvoted something I wrote. Maybe if there were a one-way hash of usernames we could see for who downvotes, we could have public insight into the insight of voter rings ("____ has downvoted my comments 3000% more than anyone else ...") without the chance of contaminating our perception of others' discourse, but I doubt that we have better info than the mods already have about posters.

Taylor_OD 10y ago

This seems to be an issue with any type of site. I had a similar problem with Reddit. I found that eventually people lose interest. At the end of the day losing internet points isnt the end of the world.

jshevek 10y ago

>. when a single person down-votes another persons comments in mass in a short period of time, or on a sustained basis. Revenge down-voting, that is. You are assuming a person's motives based only on behavior.

notacoward 10y ago

In a very rare exception to Betteridge's Law, I'd say the answer to your question is probably yes. The more interesting question is how long they'll be able to get away with it. As others point out, the mods already try to detect and prevent abuse of the upvote/downvote mechanisms. OTOH it's not clear how well automated that process is, or how effective their efforts are. It certainly seems to me that coordinated upvoting and downvoting are still pretty much par for the course on this and any other similar site.

mixmastamyk 10y ago

Don't have proof but I believe there is a limit to how many times you can up/downvote each account.

surething 10y ago

… would the overall "economics" of HN make sense if a down-vote cost 1 point of reputation, or some fraction thereof?

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

yread 10y ago

I had an opposite problem once, somebody was blindly upvoting my silly comments. Luckily, it didn't last long so I didn't have to post an Ask HN

vorotato 10y ago

What if all of your comments are terrible? I mean I'm not saying they are, but if your comments are regularly not very productive you'll see down voting but there's no individual actor doing it.

Vanit 10y ago

I wonder if it's because of your username?