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> Edit: it'd be nice if the downvoters explained why did they downvote. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguide

• TomMarius 9y ago
  I didn't get any new downvotes after the edit, but I don't really care about the downvotes, it's the lack of explanation that bugs me. I never edited comments like this until one month ago because there was no need, but that changed since around half a year ago when I noticed that instead of participating in a discussion, people just downvote. I don't think that the purpose of downvotes should be to disagree without saying anything, that creates a very toxic environment, so I'm trying to encourage people to discuss. Also, I didn't comment about voting. I replied to a comment and then added a line about the downvotes later (after I got downvoted without any explanation) because I don't feel good in this kind of environment. Edit: apparently now I'm "posting too fast" (2 comments per hour is fast? OK...), so there's my reply to the child comment that says it seems trollish: "Yeah I agree - if there wasn't the explanatory sentence after that. You can't just downvote the whole comment based on its first sentence, it has a completely different meaning without the rest."
  • Freak_NL 9y ago
    A phrasing such as "the government sure feels like a sect" comes across as trollish. Without any substantiation such an outlandish claim seems designed exclusively to provoke people, rather than engage them in meaningful discussion. Edit: as a consequence, people tend to downvote instead of engage with your comment, because they don't want to feed the trolls.