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As long as someone has opened up a guideline discussion.... "Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading."
by bpyne 16y ago
As long as someone has opened up a guideline discussion....
"Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading."
Agreed in full.
However, downmodding without constructive criticism leaves the downmodded with no sense of what to improve in the next comment. A downmod could easily be due to underdeveloped point, style, or disagreement about an opinion. At least 2 of the 3 reasons can lead to better future comments.
- swolchok 16y agoSo assume it's that your comment fell into the "noise" category and work harder on producing "signal" next time. We don't need to have a discussion every time someone felt that some post did not contribute sufficiently to the discussion.
- binspace 16y agoHow about this for a HN feature. If your post is < 1, add a link to a page about downvoted comments. That way, the person who was downvoted has an opportunity to read about some common reasons why a post was downvoted, read tips on making better comments, and has more time to emotionally process being downvoted.
- binspace 16y agoIronically, the comment above is an accidental implementation of this feature. It is currently at 0 points, and has a link to the HN policy as a link.
- bpyne 16y agoThe noise category assumption is a fair one. "Work harder" is a vague recommendation. Are there more specific recommendations you could make? No, a discussion would create noise, which would not be valuable for the HN community. A voluntary, anonymous, tip about what made the downvoted comment noise would be more than sufficient. To avoid it becoming a discussion, no reply would be allowed. (Just to throw a half-baked idea out.) Downvotes could easily become learning exercises that boost the comment quality over time.
- swolchok 16y agoThe noise category assumption is a fair one. "Work harder" is a vague recommendation. Are there more specific recommendations you could make? Don't post just because you can. Don't echo comments others have made. Don't post "obligatory" comments or content-free Reddit memes. Say something meaningful that is not immediately obvious. Don't treat post writing as an exercise in upvotability optimization.
- invisible 16y agoI think if a post goes -1, anyone else downmodding should have to reply to be allowed to downmod them again. I am all for the karma system, but I have had situations where people misinterpret what I am saying and after requesting a "why," I find out changing one word makes people understand to the point of me not being negative. (And burying a dissenting opinion for no reason should need a defense.)
- binspace 16y agoA tag feedback is more gratifying to the person getting downvoted. That person is less likely to be upset and produce a "boring discussion".