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While I'd say it's a rare occurrence, I've definitely noticed an increasing trend of comments being downvoted by people who simply disagree. It happens in some
by csallen 16y ago
While I'd say it's a rare occurrence, I've definitely noticed an increasing trend of comments being downvoted by people who simply disagree. It happens in some threads more than others... Just try voicing a contrarian opinion in a thread about privacy, for example. It also happens more often in non-startup-related and non-programming-related threads.
I think a solution, if one were to be implemented, would be requiring people to specify why they are downvoting a comment. Or better yet, to choose from a list, as long as it doesn't include "I disagree" as an option. At best, it would prevent irrational downvotes. At worst, it would at least allow people to see why they're being downvoted and learn from it.
- carbocation 16y agoI don't know if pg still feels this way since this post is from 881 days ago, but at one point he said the following: "I think it's ok to use the up and down arrows to express agreement. Obviously the uparrows aren't only for applauding politeness, so it seems reasonable that the downarrows aren't only for booing rudeness." [1] Of course, the community could decide that, at this point, downvoting for disagreement no longer makes sense. I'm pretty agnostic on the issue. [1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171