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1) Very often clever quips, even if they are funny, distract from the conversation. Being overly strict about this helps keep the place from devolving into a jo

1) Very often clever quips, even if they are funny, distract from the conversation. Being overly strict about this helps keep the place from devolving into a jokefest like so many other forums. 2) Some people will vote you down for complaining about downvoting. I sympathize with both of these rules of thumb, for what it's worth. EDIT: For some reason the "reply" link below your post is missing for me, so I'll just clarify a bit here, more than I usually would since this is a thread about gaming social norms. ;) Rule of thumb #2 also stands for asking for clarification about downvoting. Especially when you do it 3 times: by editing your original post, then replying to it, and then editing the reply. And especially when you seem defensive about it. Keep in mind that if you get "downvoted into the basement", it's not just one person downvoting you, it's at least 5. You've probably violated some implicit norm. Repeatedly asking for clarification is kind of its own awkward thing in these circumstances (especially with some manners of asking). Imagine if you make a joke in a group of friends and people obviously don't think it's funny. It's not cool to demand an explanation, like people somehow owe it to you to explain why and how you screwed up. Usually better to suck it up and move on, and try to learn from the experience.

sliverstorm 16y ago
.... ok Not complaining, simply wishing for feedback. I guess I must not make the distinction clear enough. thanks.
- gruseom 16y ago
  You got a subtle reply from mbateman, but I'll add two points. First, it's a good idea to read http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html; notice the penultimate one. Second, the downvoting of quips on HN needs to be understood in relation to Reddit, where nearly every popular thread quickly becomes dominated by a long chain of (often genuinely funny) wisecracks. Experience shows that this pattern drowns out substantive discussion, and HN is all about the latter. What people here are downvoting is not merely the individual wisecrack, but that whole pattern. It's a kind of prophylaxis. Lack of a sense of humor has nothing to do with this; it's a conscious tradeoff. This kind of downvoting has another virtue, which is that it's silent. If it added noise to the conversation, that would be ironic -- and annoying, too. If one thing's worse than misdirected wisecracks it's humorless metadiscussion. I'll stop here. :)

sliverstorm 16y ago

.... ok Not complaining, simply wishing for feedback. I guess I must not make the distinction clear enough. thanks.

gruseom 16y ago
You got a subtle reply from mbateman, but I'll add two points. First, it's a good idea to read http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html; notice the penultimate one. Second, the downvoting of quips on HN needs to be understood in relation to Reddit, where nearly every popular thread quickly becomes dominated by a long chain of (often genuinely funny) wisecracks. Experience shows that this pattern drowns out substantive discussion, and HN is all about the latter. What people here are downvoting is not merely the individual wisecrack, but that whole pattern. It's a kind of prophylaxis. Lack of a sense of humor has nothing to do with this; it's a conscious tradeoff. This kind of downvoting has another virtue, which is that it's silent. If it added noise to the conversation, that would be ironic -- and annoying, too. If one thing's worse than misdirected wisecracks it's humorless metadiscussion. I'll stop here. :)