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I generally see people on here aligning with the intent of the site (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguideline
by mplanchard 6y ago
I generally see people on here aligning with the intent of the site (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) not being downvoted. Which is to say, salty opinions, presented intelligently and politely, seem to do just fine for the most part. The downvote here is supposed to mean not that someone disagrees with you, but that you aren’t following the guidelines, seem to be arguing in poor faith, etc.
There’s also a cap on the number of downvotes a comment can receive, so you can only get I think -4 points no matter how bad of a comment you make.
You’ll also notice that upvotes for submissions only count for half the points as upvotes on comments. In general, the system is designed to promote reasoned, deeper discussion, and for the most part I think it does it well (or at least better than most online discussion forums).
The only “superpower” is downvoting. It doesn’t take all that many points to achieve. My understanding is they want folks to be familiar with the site’s guidelines and standards before giving them power to downvote.
Regarding the style guide, I don’t know of an official source, but if you go for markdown without links, you’ll generally be fine, and you can always edit your posts if needed.
- non-entity 6y ago> The downvote here is supposed to mean not that someone disagrees with you, but that you aren’t following the guidelines, seem to be arguing in poor faith, etc. Yeah you would think this, but there was an Ask HN thread maybe a month or two ago asking why people downvote and disagreement in opinion was a surprisingly popular justification.
- mplanchard 6y agoSure, people will often use it that way. I think this is one of the reasons they cap downvotes for a given comment, so the “pile-on” effect doesn’t hurt your overall point total too badly.
- mindcrime 6y agoWhich is to say, salty opinions, presented intelligently and politely, seem to do just fine for the most part. I've found that to be true for the most part. It's not quite the case though, that all opinions will be treated fairly even when presented intelligently and politely. In my own experience, I've found that certain comments will be downvoted more or less no matter what.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- feralimal 6y agoThank you for the info. But, that's just it! I think I'm polite. I have an opinion. If I don't see others making the point I have, I go ahead and make it. I'm happy to be challenged, I'll reply, and take corrections on the chin. But that's not what's happening. I'm being downvoted (I think) because of the filtered consensus disagrees with my line of thought, not that I'm not following guidelines. Albeit, how could I follow guidelines they aren't even published! I had to create this post to, to get a link to another post where this is discussed!