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I haven't really wrapped my head around the grounds for down-voting on HN. It seemed very rare - and proper - at first, but I am beginning to get that the, albe

by kmfrk 16y ago

I haven't really wrapped my head around the grounds for down-voting on HN. It seemed very rare - and proper - at first, but I am beginning to get that the, albeit few, who do it vote based on content and not form. In other words, they disagree with what a person is saying - sometimes vehemently - but the downvoted comment is still politely and somewhat cogently phrased. It's not as widespread as on reddit where there is widespread reputation-sniping going on, and many HN users tend to pick up on unfair downvotes and vote the comment up to counter it. It'll still deter some people, I guess.

nkurz 16y ago
Based on how much some of my comments bounce up and down, I don't think that the downvotes are done by only a few. But I think this is a good thing, and if anything we need more people eager to downvote poor quality submissions. I think the reason that HN has remained as usable as it has because it is actively policed for content quality. I don't see a way to check, but I'd guess that my upvote to downvote ratio is about 3:1. I try to vote up anything that would want to see more of on the site, whether I agree or disagree with the content. I try to mercilessly vote down snappy one liners, purposeless profanity, and dumb jokes. If anything, I'd say I vote primarily on form --- I'll support just about any content if it's well written and well intentioned.