On HN upvote counts on comments aren't shown in discussions but downvotes can lead to greyed out comments or dead comments. An upvote is communication to the p

On HN upvote counts on comments aren't shown in discussions but downvotes can lead to greyed out comments or dead comments. An upvote is communication to the person who posted the comment that it was positive in some way. For me, it usually stands in for "that's a good point", or "my thoughts exactly", or "this comment was unjustly downvoted". Downvotes, on the other hand, are a communication to everyone involved that that comment crossed a line in some kind of way. There's almost a social shaming that goes along with it. "Keep expressing that opinion and what you say will be increasingly harder for everyone else to see." I'm not a big fan of trying to suppress ideas. Much better to respond to them explaining why you disagree or, alternatively, to just ignore them and move on. I guess I don't feel it's up to me to work with others to make comments harder to read. People can make their own minds up without me having to tell them what they shouldn't agree with. That's why I only upvote and don't downvote.