4 ms·

In my experience if someone has an argument they feel is worth making, they will make it. Downvotes mean that someone doesn't know how to respond verbally/textu

In my experience if someone has an argument they feel is worth making, they will make it. Downvotes mean that someone doesn't know how to respond verbally/textually, or they feel the comment detracts from the discussion. Or both. Frankly some of my best comments have been downvoted. If there's nothing obviously deficient and no one offers a correction, I consider it possible that it was because it threatened someone's worldview. People will go to great lengths to protect their worldview, downvoting is nothing on that scale.

h0l0cube 6y ago
Absolutely in sympathy with everything you said there. But I can't help but challenge my silent aggressors :) I really wish downvoting was replaced with a flagging feature. The official guidelines are pretty easy to follow and fairly effective in labelling the sorts of comments that take the conversation backwards. If someone is arguing in bad faith, they're likely in contravention of one of the guidelines, in which case moderation is a more appropriate tool for the problem.
- chordalkeyboard 6y ago
  I think the unintended side effect would be more flagging of comments when its not warranted because users would lack the means of showing their displeasure without flagging or commenting. The users would complain that they needed a way to show their displeasure that wasn't as severe as flagging and downvotes would be brought back. > The official guidelines are pretty easy to follow and fairly effective in labelling the sorts of comments that take the conversation backwards. I think there are marginal cases for every rule.
  - h0l0cube 6y ago
    > I think the unintended side effect would be more flagging of comments when its not warranted Perhaps, but I think having the >500 karma rule for flagging would ensure users understand the gravity of their actions, somewhat. I find up-votes on comments to be rare, and down-votes to be a couple of orders of magnitude rarer. Part of that will be transitive of the rarity of the down-vote privilege, but I think those people having been subjected to fairly received down-votes makes them use the power with a little more discretion once they've earned it. > I think there are marginal cases for every rule. Don't disagree with this, but the HN interface is a blunt tool. I'm of the persuasion that a flagging privilege would likely have a positive impact vs a down-voting privilege, but it's hard to know without an experiment, and also hard to measure. The system as it is, is 'good enough', and most members are conservative regarding the interface, so there's hardly a motivation to try.

h0l0cube 6y ago

Absolutely in sympathy with everything you said there. But I can't help but challenge my silent aggressors :) I really wish downvoting was replaced with a flagging feature. The official guidelines are pretty easy to follow and fairly effective in labelling the sorts of comments that take the conversation backwards. If someone is arguing in bad faith, they're likely in contravention of one of the guidelines, in which case moderation is a more appropriate tool for the problem.

chordalkeyboard 6y ago
I think the unintended side effect would be more flagging of comments when its not warranted because users would lack the means of showing their displeasure without flagging or commenting. The users would complain that they needed a way to show their displeasure that wasn't as severe as flagging and downvotes would be brought back. > The official guidelines are pretty easy to follow and fairly effective in labelling the sorts of comments that take the conversation backwards. I think there are marginal cases for every rule.
- h0l0cube 6y ago
  > I think the unintended side effect would be more flagging of comments when its not warranted Perhaps, but I think having the >500 karma rule for flagging would ensure users understand the gravity of their actions, somewhat. I find up-votes on comments to be rare, and down-votes to be a couple of orders of magnitude rarer. Part of that will be transitive of the rarity of the down-vote privilege, but I think those people having been subjected to fairly received down-votes makes them use the power with a little more discretion once they've earned it. > I think there are marginal cases for every rule. Don't disagree with this, but the HN interface is a blunt tool. I'm of the persuasion that a flagging privilege would likely have a positive impact vs a down-voting privilege, but it's hard to know without an experiment, and also hard to measure. The system as it is, is 'good enough', and most members are conservative regarding the interface, so there's hardly a motivation to try.