What struck me as odd was being down-voted without anyone telling me what it was that rubbed them the wrong way. The reason that I hang around HN is because I

What struck me as odd was being down-voted without anyone telling me what it was that rubbed them the wrong way. The reason that I hang around HN is because I learn a lot by doing so. When someone down-votes something and then runs off, no one actually benefits in any way from that (unless the post that was down-voted was complete trash). My extensive edit was an attempt to lure out the down-voters so that I could find out exactly where the wheels came off in the original post. Looking back, I probably should have angled for a less confrontational tone in my edit, but I have a hard time getting tone across in these things. You know, you spend less time typing each post than you would spend on a research paper or an email but more time than a text message. It is a challenging thing to get the tone just right. I much prefer face to face conversation any day of the week, but I like this place a lot. The thing is that this is my first time actually not lurking on a site in nearly 10 years, and HN has its own unique culture. Look, you've been on this site for more than an order of magnitude longer than me. Do you (or anyone else) feel like helping a newbie out: When anonymous down-votes strike, is it better to reply to yourself, keep your edits small, or just walk away?