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Reminder to those down voting this comment. Down votes are for people not contributing to the discussion in a meaningful way. They are not for expressing disa

• novok 7y ago
  Comment systems should have 2 voting pairs, a I agree/disagree button and insightful/non-meaningful comment button.
• gnicholas 7y ago
  Is downvote the opposite of upvote? It seems that people upvote comments that are helpful/insightful and that they agree with. Because upvote and downvote seem like they would be opposites, it's not surprising that people might focus on the negative of "I agree with this comment" instead of the opposite of "this comment is helpful/insightful". The former is easier to measure than the latter.
  • jessriedel 7y ago
    pg has in the past explicitly endorsed the idea that votes should, to some extent, reflect agreement/disagreement, but he's making a mistake. He has also correctly said the votes should answer the question "do we want more of this on HN?" since that's functionally what they are used for. If anything, we should err on the side of upvoting thoughtful things we disagree with, rather than agree with, since we learn more from that.
• detaro 7y ago
  > They are not for expressing disagreement. That's not a rule on HN (unlike e.g. reddit), neither officially nor by user consensus.
  • Noumenon72 7y ago
    The OP should acknowledge that difference, but it's not a good policy to condone downvoting to disagree. It freezes out unpopular points of view and breeds resentment.