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Sometimes it's a badge of honor to get a bunch of downvotes. It's validation that a "sacred cow" has been cooked into tasty burgers.
by briantakita 7y ago
Sometimes it's a badge of honor to get a bunch of downvotes. It's validation that a "sacred cow" has been cooked into tasty burgers.
- mythrwy 7y agoThe fun part is when those you have disagreed with other threads follow you about to downvote unrelated comments. I expect they feel that they are on a crusade of righteousness of some sort.
- ScottBurson 7y agoSorry, had to upvote this!
- enraged_camel 7y agoYep. When I'm 100% correct about something [1] and I get downvoted, it only strengthens my resolve and solidifies my belief. :) [1]Which is most of the time
- phs318u 7y ago> It's validation that a "sacred cow" has been cooked into tasty burgers. Or that you’re being a jerk. The HN guidance on commentary is clearly a large part of why HN hasn’t devolved into Slashdot, and the generally on-point and respectful discussions invite really interesting and knowledgeable people to hang around, from whom we all benefit. I’ll admit that I’ve occasionally scratched my head over downvotes I’ve received. But while there may well be some that apply votes contrary to the guidelines, in most cases - if I honestly review what I’ve written - I’ve phrased my comment in a way that’s not conducive to productive discourse.
- briantakita 7y ago> Or that you’re being a jerk. Sometimes that's the case. However, I've seen ample legitimate discussion following the guidelines & conducive to further discussion, being downvoted because the downvoter obviously disagrees with the post. It tends to occur on "controversial issues" when not enough "weasel words" & "neutrality modifiers" are being used. After a while, one realizes the futility of chasing "karma". That being clear & forceful, according to one's ethics, in expression is far more rewarding.
- close04 7y ago> The HN guidance on commentary Votes receive no guidance and most people don't vote for the quality and accuracy of the comment, they do it based on how that comment fits with their personal opinion. I've seen civilized and purely objective comments being seriously downvoted, especially on polarizing topics. Many go beyond just this and after you have one unpopular comment you realize all of your comments that day just received the same exact number of downvotes at the same approximate time. So I wouldn't really call it 50/50 between "sacred cow turned burger" and "being a jerk" downvotes but it sure is too close to trust the voting system blindly. I will read even the greyed out comments.
- smichel17 7y agoI read using the Android app, "Materialistic" (on f-droid), which doesn't display vote counts. I think it's great -- I pay much more attention to the contents of comments and judge them on merit rather than voted. You can do a similar thing on desktop with ublock origin's cosmetic filtering (right click > block element).
- tremon 7y ago[ I admit, this is heading offtopic, but still a useful discussion ] most people [vote] based on how that comment fits with their personal opinion Isn't that what the voting system is for then? When I see someone has already written what I was going to say, I upvote them instead of writing a "me too" comment. My other upvotes are reserved for posts that spark my curiosity, or grey comments where I think the downvotes were undeserved. I almost never upvote comments I disagree with, unless (as above) they bring something new to the table. Downvotes I try to reserve for obnoxious or trollish comments only, but I admit there may be occasions where some man's troll is another man's freedom fighter.
- enriquto 7y ago> Sometimes it's a badge of honor to get a bunch of downvotes. It's validation that a "sacred cow" has been cooked into tasty burgers. I want to express my appreciation for this comment, but I don't know what will make you happier, an upvote or a downvote?
- Intermernet 7y agoDo either one, then unvote it!