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Toxicity, very off-topic, ad hominem, bad jokes, trolls, me-toos, and low-effort comments are things I downvote. I do not downvote opinions I don't agree with.
by mod 6y ago
Toxicity, very off-topic, ad hominem, bad jokes, trolls, me-toos, and low-effort comments are things I downvote.
I do not downvote opinions I don't agree with. I often see a well-crafted comment that is being downvoted, and upvote it although I do not agree with it. I think it's nice to have opposing views, and it's a tragedy when one viewpoint is silenced. Especially on a tech-focused forum.
If I were downvoting people who disagreed with me, I wouldn't always feel compelled to defend myself with a comment. I think those comment threads are almost always quite boring and so I try to avoid them. Being several "generations" deep is often indicative of this.
- ethbr0 6y agoThis is essentially a summary of my behavior as well. Well-crafted and/or sourced argument, regardless of whether I agree or disagree = upvote Reddit-level discourse, knee-jerk commenting, trolling / flaming = downvote I'll also upvote or downvote based on context of comment. Is a comment taking a thread off-topic, when the parent was fairly clear? And finally, karma fairness. Is someone getting downvoted for no apparent reason, without anyone commenting in response? Upvote.
- mdifrgechd 6y agoHow do you identify "toxicity" vs just something you don't agree with. The other items in your list I can see a way to make a pretty clear judgement about, saying "that is toxic", not so sure.
- mod 6y agoI guess I'm referring to general hate. A good political example would be "People voting for ________ are idiots." Same thing in tech; a discussion about why you don't like a family of languages is great. A discussion about why people who use that family of language are all terrible curmudgeons probably isn't. Overall, I think toxicity is something you know when you see. A well-worded, earnest disagreement is nowhere near toxic.