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I feel like HN is turning a bit in this direction too. I feel like I’m seeing more downvoted comments, and they are more often than not perfectly good comments,

I feel like HN is turning a bit in this direction too. I feel like I’m seeing more downvoted comments, and they are more often than not perfectly good comments, and no one replies explaining why they don’t like the comment. Of course you can’t talk about it because it’s against the rules.

herodotus 7y ago
agree. I sometimes upvote a downvoted comment just because it looks like a reasonable comment, and I cannot see any reason why it was downvoted.
- ubercow13 7y ago
  I too do this daily.
- 1_player 7y ago
  It happens, people are a little trigger happy on the Internet, but HN is a forum utopia compared to StackOverflow or Reddit. In my experience, on here people downvote when the answer is either off topic/spam or false with regards to the topic. Sometimes some good comments are greyed out because the profile has been (wrongly) shadowbanned, but the "vouch" feature is great for that. EDIT: is HN so good compared to the rest because of its moderation tools/upvote system, or because it attracts only a specific niche of people? Would a Reddit/SO with HN features work better than the current sites?
  - unilynx 7y ago
    I think it's mostly the community and its culture. As another example, lwn.net attracts a somewhat similar crowd, has no moderation tools at all (it's extremely rare for a comment to be removed) and has generally interesting comments. (just never mention init systems)
  - ahaferburg 7y ago
    People in this thread downvoted comments that express unpopular opinions. Even factually wrong posts should not be suppressed but corrected/challenged in a reply. As the rules state, assume good faith. Downvotes should be reserved for trolls and low effort posts. I agree that HN is much nicer than SO or Reddit, but that is largely due to the moderators here.
ilaksh 7y ago
I don't know if it's a new phenomenon. There has always been a big difference between popularity and merit. That's what voting is, a popularity contest. It's not uncommon for a good idea to be downvoted or ignored just because its coming from a different perspective.
lmm 7y ago
dang's niceness rules make it too hard to explain what's wrong with a comment. A few years ago, when someone was wrong I would've explained why and how. But that's difficult enough to do without having to also make the correction sound kind. Nowadays, if I make a correction in reply, I'll get downvoted myself. So I silently downvote and move on instead.

herodotus 7y ago

agree. I sometimes upvote a downvoted comment just because it looks like a reasonable comment, and I cannot see any reason why it was downvoted.

ubercow13 7y ago
I too do this daily.
1_player 7y ago
It happens, people are a little trigger happy on the Internet, but HN is a forum utopia compared to StackOverflow or Reddit. In my experience, on here people downvote when the answer is either off topic/spam or false with regards to the topic. Sometimes some good comments are greyed out because the profile has been (wrongly) shadowbanned, but the "vouch" feature is great for that. EDIT: is HN so good compared to the rest because of its moderation tools/upvote system, or because it attracts only a specific niche of people? Would a Reddit/SO with HN features work better than the current sites?
- unilynx 7y ago
  I think it's mostly the community and its culture. As another example, lwn.net attracts a somewhat similar crowd, has no moderation tools at all (it's extremely rare for a comment to be removed) and has generally interesting comments. (just never mention init systems)
- ahaferburg 7y ago
  People in this thread downvoted comments that express unpopular opinions. Even factually wrong posts should not be suppressed but corrected/challenged in a reply. As the rules state, assume good faith. Downvotes should be reserved for trolls and low effort posts. I agree that HN is much nicer than SO or Reddit, but that is largely due to the moderators here.

ilaksh 7y ago

I don't know if it's a new phenomenon. There has always been a big difference between popularity and merit. That's what voting is, a popularity contest. It's not uncommon for a good idea to be downvoted or ignored just because its coming from a different perspective.

lmm 7y ago

dang's niceness rules make it too hard to explain what's wrong with a comment. A few years ago, when someone was wrong I would've explained why and how. But that's difficult enough to do without having to also make the correction sound kind. Nowadays, if I make a correction in reply, I'll get downvoted myself. So I silently downvote and move on instead.