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It's very rare to see a well-articulated, reasonable opinion get downvoted on this website. HN seems to be slowly catching the disease where stupid popular opi

It's very rare to see a well-articulated, reasonable opinion get downvoted on this website. HN seems to be slowly catching the disease where stupid popular opinions get upvoted an unreasonable amount (I call this "Slashdot Disease"), but this isn't nearly as dangerous as censorship by downvote.

bmelton 16y ago
I personally have posted mathematically provable facts that happened to go against popular opinion be downvoted into negativity, so I wouldn't say it's that rare. On the whole, the general behavior seems to trend towards upvoting interestingness, but it's by no means insanely uncommon at all, I think.
- deleted 16y ago
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- lotharbot 16y ago
  It's rare for a well articulated, reasonable, relevant, respectful opinion to be downvoted. But recall, a statement can be mathematically provable and yet fail on another of those points. --- Since you brought it up: in the specific case you're probably referring to [0], you say that you're "not sure exactly what [the parent post is] taking issue with", but the original author of the piece responded to the parent post letting him know he'd corrected his mistake [1]. So while your assertion was technically mathematically correct, I would say it was not relevant, and in fact was dismissive of a relevant concern, which I think explains the downvotes. I do not think it's fair to characterize it as being downvoted because it "happened to go against popular opinion". (I cannot say for sure; I did not vote on any of those comments, but I think I understand the sentiment of those who did.) [0] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1646343 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1646343 [1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1648302 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1648302
  - bmelton 16y ago
    I'm glad you brought it up -- I figured it was bad form to do so personally, and was even ashamed of posting the comment you responded to here. That said, I didn't see Max Klein's response, so I'm quite glad you pointed that out to me, as it was curious; However, I don't feel I was dismissive in the slightest. In light of the correction, I can see how others could view my stance as at odds with reality, but I personally didn't see cause for concern. Again though, my reading / interpretation of the statement was clearly not what was intended, so my logic is predicated upon a fallacy. I feel I understand it much better now that you've brought it up, because I was honestly dumbfounded at the time. Still, so as not to betray my Irish stubbornness, it _was_ mathematically correct. ;-)

bmelton 16y ago

I personally have posted mathematically provable facts that happened to go against popular opinion be downvoted into negativity, so I wouldn't say it's that rare. On the whole, the general behavior seems to trend towards upvoting interestingness, but it's by no means insanely uncommon at all, I think.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
lotharbot 16y ago
It's rare for a well articulated, reasonable, relevant, respectful opinion to be downvoted. But recall, a statement can be mathematically provable and yet fail on another of those points. --- Since you brought it up: in the specific case you're probably referring to [0], you say that you're "not sure exactly what [the parent post is] taking issue with", but the original author of the piece responded to the parent post letting him know he'd corrected his mistake [1]. So while your assertion was technically mathematically correct, I would say it was not relevant, and in fact was dismissive of a relevant concern, which I think explains the downvotes. I do not think it's fair to characterize it as being downvoted because it "happened to go against popular opinion". (I cannot say for sure; I did not vote on any of those comments, but I think I understand the sentiment of those who did.) [0] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1646343 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1646343 [1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1648302 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1648302
- bmelton 16y ago
  I'm glad you brought it up -- I figured it was bad form to do so personally, and was even ashamed of posting the comment you responded to here. That said, I didn't see Max Klein's response, so I'm quite glad you pointed that out to me, as it was curious; However, I don't feel I was dismissive in the slightest. In light of the correction, I can see how others could view my stance as at odds with reality, but I personally didn't see cause for concern. Again though, my reading / interpretation of the statement was clearly not what was intended, so my logic is predicated upon a fallacy. I feel I understand it much better now that you've brought it up, because I was honestly dumbfounded at the time. Still, so as not to betray my Irish stubbornness, it _was_ mathematically correct. ;-)