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I view downvotes as an incomplete feature. If you disagree with some content -- because it is misinformation, or useless, or maybe you just disagree with the ar

I view downvotes as an incomplete feature. If you disagree with some content -- because it is misinformation, or useless, or maybe you just disagree with the argument -- you should be able to explain what's wrong with it. I would much rather have a system where a downvote required a reason, so instead of a downvote it would be more like a comment which can also -1 / 0 / +1 the karma of the parent.

kylebenzle 6y ago
That post that blew up about Apple keeping their 30% cut after a refund was 100% made up. It was, sorry to say, "fake news". But my comment got downvoted. You idiots here on HN would rather read "news" that agrees with your already held opinions, that is why the downvote button is here, so idiots don't have to think too much.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- bryogenic 6y ago
  This has provided an opportunity for exercising my seldom used downvote button. How apropos. This comment violates the first guideline on comments: > Be kind. Don't be snarky. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.
- ziddoap 6y ago
  >You idiots here on HN >so idiots don't have to think too much Do you really not understand why you might get down-voted if this is how you address people? Tone is important. How you address those reading your comment is also important.
- happytoexplain 6y ago
  Why express hatred for such a petty reason?
- mikece 6y ago
  Given the topic of this comment thread, it's hard to tell if this is an actual rant or an attempt at trolling...
- dang 6y ago
  What comment are you referring to? You should include a link so readers can make up their own minds, i.e. so they can see whether there might have been some other reason to downvote the comment. Generally a good, substantive comment explaining what's false in an article will get upvoted heavily. Sometimes, though, such a comment breaks the site guidelines at the same time as it includes correct information. That's particularly bad, because it actually discredits the truth: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20truth%20discredit&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que.... (While I have you: would you please stop breaking the site guidelines generally? You've done it a lot and, as you know, we ban accounts that do that. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)
kube-system 6y ago
The downvote button is not a disagree button. If you disagree with something, add your own comment. That's the point of a discussion board. Downvotes are for comments which are not worthy of a response because they are not honest attempts at discussion.
- hirundo 6y ago
  > The downvote button is not a disagree button. That's wishful thinking. In practice that's just what it is. I'd be in favor of some magical gui change that would fix that, but it doesn't exist.
  - kube-system 6y ago
    There are some GUI features that address this. For instance, there is no downvote button if you reply to someone, or if they reply to you. But ultimately, the use of the button is up to the community.
the-dude 6y ago
Doesn't /. have this?
- Jtsummers 6y ago
  Yes. It's been a long time since I've been to /., but I used to be pretty active on it. You'd get 5 moderation points at a time, you'd only get those if you had good karma and you wouldn't get them very often. You applied them to comments and marked the reason for the up or down vote. They also did meta-moderation. You could choose to meta-moderate and you'd be shown a post (or posts) with their moderation and could select whether the moderation was appropriate or not. So a post like yours that got marked "off-topic" by someone (it's not, it's a fair and earnest question) would result in the moderator getting some kind of penalty in meta-moderation. Another thing I liked was that if you participated in the discussion your moderation points disappeared. So if I moderated your comment (up or down) and then replied elsewhere, your comment lost or gained a point.

kylebenzle 6y ago

That post that blew up about Apple keeping their 30% cut after a refund was 100% made up. It was, sorry to say, "fake news". But my comment got downvoted. You idiots here on HN would rather read "news" that agrees with your already held opinions, that is why the downvote button is here, so idiots don't have to think too much.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
bryogenic 6y ago
This has provided an opportunity for exercising my seldom used downvote button. How apropos. This comment violates the first guideline on comments: > Be kind. Don't be snarky. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.
ziddoap 6y ago
>You idiots here on HN >so idiots don't have to think too much Do you really not understand why you might get down-voted if this is how you address people? Tone is important. How you address those reading your comment is also important.
happytoexplain 6y ago
Why express hatred for such a petty reason?
mikece 6y ago
Given the topic of this comment thread, it's hard to tell if this is an actual rant or an attempt at trolling...
dang 6y ago
What comment are you referring to? You should include a link so readers can make up their own minds, i.e. so they can see whether there might have been some other reason to downvote the comment. Generally a good, substantive comment explaining what's false in an article will get upvoted heavily. Sometimes, though, such a comment breaks the site guidelines at the same time as it includes correct information. That's particularly bad, because it actually discredits the truth: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20truth%20discredit&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que.... (While I have you: would you please stop breaking the site guidelines generally? You've done it a lot and, as you know, we ban accounts that do that. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

kube-system 6y ago

The downvote button is not a disagree button. If you disagree with something, add your own comment. That's the point of a discussion board. Downvotes are for comments which are not worthy of a response because they are not honest attempts at discussion.

hirundo 6y ago
> The downvote button is not a disagree button. That's wishful thinking. In practice that's just what it is. I'd be in favor of some magical gui change that would fix that, but it doesn't exist.
- kube-system 6y ago
  There are some GUI features that address this. For instance, there is no downvote button if you reply to someone, or if they reply to you. But ultimately, the use of the button is up to the community.

the-dude 6y ago

Doesn't /. have this?

Jtsummers 6y ago
Yes. It's been a long time since I've been to /., but I used to be pretty active on it. You'd get 5 moderation points at a time, you'd only get those if you had good karma and you wouldn't get them very often. You applied them to comments and marked the reason for the up or down vote. They also did meta-moderation. You could choose to meta-moderate and you'd be shown a post (or posts) with their moderation and could select whether the moderation was appropriate or not. So a post like yours that got marked "off-topic" by someone (it's not, it's a fair and earnest question) would result in the moderator getting some kind of penalty in meta-moderation. Another thing I liked was that if you participated in the discussion your moderation points disappeared. So if I moderated your comment (up or down) and then replied elsewhere, your comment lost or gained a point.