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FWIW, I discovered that people take disagreements personally and will stalk you across threads if you're not careful with their egos. For some reason I am inca

by mahmud 16y ago

FWIW, I discovered that people take disagreements personally and will stalk you across threads if you're not careful with their egos. For some reason I am incapable of remembering names and can only identify about 10 - 15 people here other than the ones I have met or know from somewhere else. So the whole thing feels to me like detached, anonymous discussion. I was surprised to be 1) remembered, and 2) "punished" in another, unrelated context. There are also times when I withhold contributing to a thread because of its strong fanboy/flamer possibilities. Certain companies have .. enthusiastic supporters/haters.

paraschopra 16y ago
I am surprised people "punishing" online but I did realize that people used downvoting for disagreement (or if they are frustrated) while it should be used only if a comment is irrelevant to the topic or is frivolous. I usually upvote the comments I disagree with because a healthy debate always helps me fill gaps in my knowledge. But when passions and emotions rule, "healthy debate" is simply impossible. Some people seem to be too stuck up with their beliefs. Come On guys, many times it is good to be _wrong_.
petercooper 16y ago
I wasn't going to reply until I noticed I had a long line of comments with 2s a couple of hours ago, now they're all 1s after this morning's little scuffle: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1851115 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1851115 You can never prove anything unless you have the logs so there's not much point worrying, just play with and enjoy the furore. The best defence, if there is any, is to have a lot of karma and only engage with these folks if you can bear to lose some of it.
- mahmud 16y ago
  Err, that thread was fine until you linked to his history, Peter. But yeah, drug related threads, red flag :-) I hope you learned your lesson.
  - petercooper 16y ago
    I don't see a problem in looking at people's previous submissions - it can come in handy to get some context (in this case, it did, since his behavior on HN was getting him voted down in the past). That said, I just went back and re-read your post and, yes, I see your point now and it's not quite how I read it first time round. I think the real problem is people who go back and vote down stuff to "punish" people, not those who introduce context from looking through your history (which I'm quite happy for people to do when replying to me).
    - mahmud 16y ago
      OTOH, there are threads that are just way too interesting, but get virtually no contributions. Here is a thread with one comment and one upvote, both mine, and it just has the potential of being very rewarding, IF the person who started has any intention to continue: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1852001 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1852001
donaq 16y ago
I've also noticed that there seems to be a mob downvoting mentality. I seldom downvote already downvoted comments unless they are especially egregious, but recently it seems that you either get no downvotes or a torrent of them. Either that or people are playing sockpuppets. [Edit: I think one way to mitigate this might be to make a user's votes viewable.]

by mahmud 16y ago

paraschopra 16y ago

I am surprised people "punishing" online but I did realize that people used downvoting for disagreement (or if they are frustrated) while it should be used only if a comment is irrelevant to the topic or is frivolous. I usually upvote the comments I disagree with because a healthy debate always helps me fill gaps in my knowledge. But when passions and emotions rule, "healthy debate" is simply impossible. Some people seem to be too stuck up with their beliefs. Come On guys, many times it is good to be _wrong_.

petercooper 16y ago

I wasn't going to reply until I noticed I had a long line of comments with 2s a couple of hours ago, now they're all 1s after this morning's little scuffle: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1851115 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1851115 You can never prove anything unless you have the logs so there's not much point worrying, just play with and enjoy the furore. The best defence, if there is any, is to have a lot of karma and only engage with these folks if you can bear to lose some of it.

mahmud 16y ago
Err, that thread was fine until you linked to his history, Peter. But yeah, drug related threads, red flag :-) I hope you learned your lesson.
- petercooper 16y ago
  I don't see a problem in looking at people's previous submissions - it can come in handy to get some context (in this case, it did, since his behavior on HN was getting him voted down in the past). That said, I just went back and re-read your post and, yes, I see your point now and it's not quite how I read it first time round. I think the real problem is people who go back and vote down stuff to "punish" people, not those who introduce context from looking through your history (which I'm quite happy for people to do when replying to me).
  - mahmud 16y ago
    OTOH, there are threads that are just way too interesting, but get virtually no contributions. Here is a thread with one comment and one upvote, both mine, and it just has the potential of being very rewarding, IF the person who started has any intention to continue: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1852001 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1852001

donaq 16y ago

I've also noticed that there seems to be a mob downvoting mentality. I seldom downvote already downvoted comments unless they are especially egregious, but recently it seems that you either get no downvotes or a torrent of them. Either that or people are playing sockpuppets. [Edit: I think one way to mitigate this might be to make a user's votes viewable.]