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I was going to give you an upvote actually, but I viscerally hate the phrase "I know I'm going to get downvoted..." Just write what you have to say and who car

• mcantor 16y ago
  I expressly condone your decision. I dislike it when anyone says that, or when people say "UGH WHY AM I GETTING DOWNVOTED." But, I have noticed that sometimes I will be spontaneously aware of someone's voting patterns, and I catch myself thinking, "This guy gets downvoted for the same stuff every time he says it. Why does he keep posting it?" So I thought I'd put the little explanation down there, in case anyone does something similar. IMHO, "I know I'm going to get downvoted..." is a little less stupid when it comes with an explanation--a pre-emptive, quiet rebuttal to all of the silent downvotes. EDIT: Also, I never presume that people who downvote me are fools. Sometimes I find myself downvoting due to some essential gut reaction that I either can't verbalize or don't bother verbalizing. In fact, I think I have done that when people fecklessly criticize corporate business practices. Perhaps it was my initial awareness of "I might downvote the comment I'm writing, if I came across it in the wild," which inspired me to include the explanation. Every disagreement is an opportunity for learning. By including the explanation, it invites someone to reply and say, "Actually, I downvoted you because x," and then I will learn something new about the nature of HN commenters.