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I used to be incredibly active on here, and then I started getting downvoted on virtually every comment, likely for political reasons. I have all but stopped c

I used to be incredibly active on here, and then I started getting downvoted on virtually every comment, likely for political reasons. I have all but stopped commenting compared to my previous activity. It just stopped being fun. Even posts I make that have nothing to do with politics, that only point out provable, factual information, get downvoted. I have over 13K karma, even after losing a few thousand points over the last 18 months or so. So the things that I have to say weren't always unpopular. I didn't change - the community did. It became a hostile, vindictive place. I still visit daily because HN does a good job of surfacing interesting articles, but I used to find the comments more interesting than the stories themselves. That has changed in the last few years, as identity politics have taken hold. I can now accurately predict the content of many of the comments on a given story by simply reading its title. It's sad to see.

0x737368 6y ago
It's hilarious how your comment got immediately downvoted for sharing a personal anecdote about the very same thing. Must really be rubbing the people who downvote for political difference reasons the wrong way.
0xEFF 6y ago
Down voted you because of your about me.
- downandout 6y ago
  I believe it's an honest assessment of the current state of HN.
  - ascar 6y ago
    I remember you because of the about me. I was reading a somewhat controversial comment from you and then visited your account page probably to check for sibling comments in the same post. Your about me definitely changed how I feel about your comments and probably the source of your recent experience.
    - downandout 6y ago
      My about me is based upon my experience here over the last few years. I updated it at some point in the last 6 months, long after all this started. So it is a symptom of my experience here, not a cause.
      - krageon 5y ago
        It being based on your experience doesn't change the fact that it looks like it was written for the explicit purpose of getting under people's skin. Essentially, the responses you are getting (here) are the ones you are angling for.
  - DangitBobby 6y ago
    It's a bit passive aggressive, don't you think, to do drive-by insults of random strangers?
    - downandout 6y ago
      When I first put that up, I actually ended it by saying "Be part of the solution" or something along those lines. Then, as the downvotes kept coming, I came to realize that most of the people checking my profile had just downvoted one of my comments, and were there looking for additional comments to downvote. I have watched the downvotes come in batches, across threads. That's why it has a pretty negative tone.
      - type0 6y ago
        If you stop making comments with negative tone maybe you will stop getting downvotes.
  - benlivengood 6y ago
    I think you're using an overly broad brush. For example, you still feel it's worthwhile to comment sometimes which implies that there are bastions of useful content, which you don't list. I'm sure we disagree on things, which limits the extent of groupthink. Beyond that, there's the relative difference between HN and places like 4chan. Nuance is helpful.
  - DangitBobby 6y ago
    I have briefly perused your comments and most of them seem to be interesting contributions. Some of them were definitely downvoted for no real reason AFAICT other than offering up unpopular opinions, and still others appeared to be downvoted for being what I think is a combative tone. You do, in general I think, come across as a bit combative. You have interesting, relevant, and/or factual things to say, maybe consider how what you are saying comes across.
burnished 6y ago
What are some of your views that you think have become unpopular over time?
- downandout 6y ago
  I don't actually know. I am who I am, and have been responding to things in the same way since I arrived on the site. I took a lot of flack for criticizing GDPR, which I agree with in principle but believe was very poorly implemented. Also people seem to have confused me for a Trump supporter, even though I am middle-of-the-road politically - which is why I suspect that I get many automatic downvotes regardless of the content of my comments. I try to call things as I see them, and any criticism of left-leaning principles/programs/policies on here - even the most misguided ones - tends to meet with instant, harsh rebuke.
  - benlivengood 6y ago
    > I try to call things as I see them, and any criticism of left-leaning principles/programs/policies on here - even the most misguided ones - tends to meet with instant, harsh rebuke. Something to consider; is it a harsh rebuke or just other people calling it as they see it?
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  - angry_octet 6y ago
    If you will forgive the armchair psychoanalysis, perhaps "call things as I see them" is not a good approach? Does that not indicate a lack of engagement with the discourse? You seem to respond negatively, with accusations of bad faith, to a number of respondents who I thought had valid responses; this is builds antagonism. I have stopped being offended by downvotes -- I am better at accepting them as opposing my viewpoint without having a better counter-argument. If a topic is controversial, I know it will attract downvotes, and I'm fine with insulting people who hold abhorrent views. If you tone down the hyperbole a little, and write with less of a conspiracy minded tone, I suspect you will have far fewer downvotes; HN is rather libertarian leaning overall.
TigeriusKirk 6y ago
I agree it's a good place to find interesting articles. I also think reading the comments is rarely a good use of time. Just feels like the median discussion site in that regard.
type0 6y ago
Have you considered changing your account from 'downandout' to 'downvoteme'? It probably would do the trick.
_Microft 6y ago
> I started getting downvoted on virtually every comment, likely for political reasons. That could well be because a lot of the downvotes I saw in your recent comment history were on outright political topics (Parler/Trump‘s ban from Twitter/…) It might help if you just stayed away from those if you otherwise enjoyed being active here?
saalweachter 6y ago
Browsing your recent comments, have you considered ... not commenting about downvotes? I see a lot of "Why am I getting downvoted for this?", "Group think, downvotes, blah blah blah.", "I'm going to get downvoted for this but...", all of which are just magnets for more downvotes. I think if you just stopped commenting on the downvoting, well, you'd still get the odd comment downvoted from time to time, because hey, you say things people don't like, you're going to get the downvotes, and yeah, people don't always explain why, which I know is annoying ... but you'd at least no longer be compounding it with the three or four follow-on comments that also all get downvoted, and your net karma would probably be fine.
- downandout 6y ago
  You saw a recent thread about it in my history, but that is not something I normally comment on. I’ll bring it up every now and then when I say something entirely factual because I find it funny that people will downvote indisputable facts simply because they don’t happen to like what the fact says about their preferred narrative. But this was happening long before I ever started talking about them. It’s appropriate to talk about here because the voting system is the topic of this article.

0x737368 6y ago

It's hilarious how your comment got immediately downvoted for sharing a personal anecdote about the very same thing. Must really be rubbing the people who downvote for political difference reasons the wrong way.

0xEFF 6y ago

Down voted you because of your about me.

downandout 6y ago
I believe it's an honest assessment of the current state of HN.
- ascar 6y ago
  I remember you because of the about me. I was reading a somewhat controversial comment from you and then visited your account page probably to check for sibling comments in the same post. Your about me definitely changed how I feel about your comments and probably the source of your recent experience.
  - downandout 6y ago
    My about me is based upon my experience here over the last few years. I updated it at some point in the last 6 months, long after all this started. So it is a symptom of my experience here, not a cause.
    - krageon 5y ago
      It being based on your experience doesn't change the fact that it looks like it was written for the explicit purpose of getting under people's skin. Essentially, the responses you are getting (here) are the ones you are angling for.
- DangitBobby 6y ago
  It's a bit passive aggressive, don't you think, to do drive-by insults of random strangers?
  - downandout 6y ago
    When I first put that up, I actually ended it by saying "Be part of the solution" or something along those lines. Then, as the downvotes kept coming, I came to realize that most of the people checking my profile had just downvoted one of my comments, and were there looking for additional comments to downvote. I have watched the downvotes come in batches, across threads. That's why it has a pretty negative tone.
    - type0 6y ago
      If you stop making comments with negative tone maybe you will stop getting downvotes.
- benlivengood 6y ago
  I think you're using an overly broad brush. For example, you still feel it's worthwhile to comment sometimes which implies that there are bastions of useful content, which you don't list. I'm sure we disagree on things, which limits the extent of groupthink. Beyond that, there's the relative difference between HN and places like 4chan. Nuance is helpful.
- DangitBobby 6y ago
  I have briefly perused your comments and most of them seem to be interesting contributions. Some of them were definitely downvoted for no real reason AFAICT other than offering up unpopular opinions, and still others appeared to be downvoted for being what I think is a combative tone. You do, in general I think, come across as a bit combative. You have interesting, relevant, and/or factual things to say, maybe consider how what you are saying comes across.

burnished 6y ago

What are some of your views that you think have become unpopular over time?

downandout 6y ago
I don't actually know. I am who I am, and have been responding to things in the same way since I arrived on the site. I took a lot of flack for criticizing GDPR, which I agree with in principle but believe was very poorly implemented. Also people seem to have confused me for a Trump supporter, even though I am middle-of-the-road politically - which is why I suspect that I get many automatic downvotes regardless of the content of my comments. I try to call things as I see them, and any criticism of left-leaning principles/programs/policies on here - even the most misguided ones - tends to meet with instant, harsh rebuke.
- benlivengood 6y ago
  > I try to call things as I see them, and any criticism of left-leaning principles/programs/policies on here - even the most misguided ones - tends to meet with instant, harsh rebuke. Something to consider; is it a harsh rebuke or just other people calling it as they see it?
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- angry_octet 6y ago
  If you will forgive the armchair psychoanalysis, perhaps "call things as I see them" is not a good approach? Does that not indicate a lack of engagement with the discourse? You seem to respond negatively, with accusations of bad faith, to a number of respondents who I thought had valid responses; this is builds antagonism. I have stopped being offended by downvotes -- I am better at accepting them as opposing my viewpoint without having a better counter-argument. If a topic is controversial, I know it will attract downvotes, and I'm fine with insulting people who hold abhorrent views. If you tone down the hyperbole a little, and write with less of a conspiracy minded tone, I suspect you will have far fewer downvotes; HN is rather libertarian leaning overall.

TigeriusKirk 6y ago

I agree it's a good place to find interesting articles. I also think reading the comments is rarely a good use of time. Just feels like the median discussion site in that regard.

type0 6y ago

Have you considered changing your account from 'downandout' to 'downvoteme'? It probably would do the trick.

_Microft 6y ago

> I started getting downvoted on virtually every comment, likely for political reasons. That could well be because a lot of the downvotes I saw in your recent comment history were on outright political topics (Parler/Trump‘s ban from Twitter/…) It might help if you just stayed away from those if you otherwise enjoyed being active here?

saalweachter 6y ago

Browsing your recent comments, have you considered ... not commenting about downvotes? I see a lot of "Why am I getting downvoted for this?", "Group think, downvotes, blah blah blah.", "I'm going to get downvoted for this but...", all of which are just magnets for more downvotes. I think if you just stopped commenting on the downvoting, well, you'd still get the odd comment downvoted from time to time, because hey, you say things people don't like, you're going to get the downvotes, and yeah, people don't always explain why, which I know is annoying ... but you'd at least no longer be compounding it with the three or four follow-on comments that also all get downvoted, and your net karma would probably be fine.

downandout 6y ago
You saw a recent thread about it in my history, but that is not something I normally comment on. I’ll bring it up every now and then when I say something entirely factual because I find it funny that people will downvote indisputable facts simply because they don’t happen to like what the fact says about their preferred narrative. But this was happening long before I ever started talking about them. It’s appropriate to talk about here because the voting system is the topic of this article.