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Downvote feedback welcome. I did not expect people to downvote this. At worst, I expected people to see this comment as neutral. I'm fine with losing points, I

Downvote feedback welcome. I did not expect people to downvote this. At worst, I expected people to see this comment as neutral. I'm fine with losing points, I am simply curious as to what goes through people their minds when they downvote it. My perspective: This comment does not seem to break HN guidelines. Here is the contribution of the comment: - Assuming that making smalltalk to strangers is a good thing (parent's showcase), then what's more important is doing it. It doesn't matter how you're inspired to do it. - Perhaps read the Luck Factor - Traffic lights are programmed in C (in my part of the world) If the downvote comes from that it doesn't add enough. Fair enough. If it's rather something else (tone, some form of negative emotion, civility or anything like that), I'd be curious to know how it affects people. If no one gives feedback after me asking explicitly, I get it.

mercer 7y ago
1) sometimes comments get downvoted for no apparent reason, in which they usually get upvoted again later. 2) many HN users downvote comments that talk about being downvoted, as it is against the rules (and can come across as needy/whiny). 3. while it can feel bad to see your comments turn grey, it's probably not healthy to let it affect your feelings (much). I've often wondered by sometimes perfectly reasonable comments are downloaded, and I suspect it's 1) because people just don't like the commenter because of other comments, 2) mis-clicks, 3) bots that randomly vote to appear like real users. FWIW, I upvoted your original comment and downvoted this one because of 2.
jotm 7y ago
I've come to the conclusion weird downvotes are just a short, mostly emotion driven decisions. Sort of a "Too complicated, did not understand, seems bad - downvotes". Every social website suffers from it. TBH, I would like to hear it from someone who does it, because I don't think my explanation quite covers it... I, for example, never downvote unless it's obviously completely wrong or extremely offensive (and intended to be so).
taneq 7y ago
I tend to assume that with no accompanying response on an otherwise uninflammatory post, a downvote is just a 'disagree' from one of the minority that use them that way. (Of course sometimes it just means I said something inflammatory, but usually it's pretty clear if I have.)
mettamage 7y ago
Thanks for the feedback mercer, taneq and jotm (at the time of writing). I really appreciate it. There were a couple of things there that I hadn't considered.

mercer 7y ago

1) sometimes comments get downvoted for no apparent reason, in which they usually get upvoted again later. 2) many HN users downvote comments that talk about being downvoted, as it is against the rules (and can come across as needy/whiny). 3. while it can feel bad to see your comments turn grey, it's probably not healthy to let it affect your feelings (much). I've often wondered by sometimes perfectly reasonable comments are downloaded, and I suspect it's 1) because people just don't like the commenter because of other comments, 2) mis-clicks, 3) bots that randomly vote to appear like real users. FWIW, I upvoted your original comment and downvoted this one because of 2.

jotm 7y ago

I've come to the conclusion weird downvotes are just a short, mostly emotion driven decisions. Sort of a "Too complicated, did not understand, seems bad - downvotes". Every social website suffers from it. TBH, I would like to hear it from someone who does it, because I don't think my explanation quite covers it... I, for example, never downvote unless it's obviously completely wrong or extremely offensive (and intended to be so).

taneq 7y ago

I tend to assume that with no accompanying response on an otherwise uninflammatory post, a downvote is just a 'disagree' from one of the minority that use them that way. (Of course sometimes it just means I said something inflammatory, but usually it's pretty clear if I have.)

mettamage 7y ago

Thanks for the feedback mercer, taneq and jotm (at the time of writing). I really appreciate it. There were a couple of things there that I hadn't considered.