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> can you honestly not understand the dangers of the path you're going down? I downvoted you, and I consider your question here hyperbolic. I don't think you a

> can you honestly not understand the dangers of the path you're going down? I downvoted you, and I consider your question here hyperbolic. I don't think you are being disingenuous, I believe that you sincerely hold your belief, I just view your concerns as a modern day Chicken Little claiming the sky is falling. I've looked at the same set of data and come to different conclusions than you. I don't think we'll see eye to eye, and I don't think it's likely we'll convince each other of anything, so I don't know how worthwhile this comment even is, but I thought I'd pass it along as a "Here's one reason why people might be downvoting you and here's how you are being perceived." Maybe that's not valuable, maybe you already know that's why people are downvoting. I dunno, it just felt like you were accusing your downvoters of not being rational actors, and I suspect your downvoters look at you the same way?

claytongulick 5y ago
It is valuable, and I appreciate your response. It may not surprise you to know that I fundamentally disagree with downvoting in general- I feel like there a difference between signaling "this is low quality content" and "I disagree with your point". In HN there's no way to make that distinction, so if you want to express a viewpoint that's unpopular (which we should encourage in debate) you have to be willing to pay a karma penalty.
- Pfhreak 5y ago
  I feel the same, actually. I'm a Marxist. I often get downvoted for mentioning something about socialism or social justice in general. I believe many of those downvotes are because the community here is not particularly fond of that ideology. I get it. I'm not particularly fond of lots of ideologies. But I don't have tools here to differentiate between, "I disagree" and "Your comment is structurally bad (rude/breaks the rules/is low effort/etc." I think we'd both benefit from breaking the coupling between those two reasons to downvote. (And yes, I'm aware that downvoting because you disagree is against the rules, but I don't think that stops anyone. :D )
  - tptacek 5y ago
    Downvoting because of disagreement is specifically allowed here, and pretty much always has been.
    - Pfhreak 5y ago
      You know, I could have sworn I read in the guidelines somewhere that downvotes aren't to be used just to signal that you disagree, but in diving a bit deeper I think that's just one of those things that people say, but doesn't actually ground to any specific rules/guidelines. And in fact, an early post says the opposite -- downvoting because you disagree is fine: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171
      - jimmux 5y ago
        You might be thinking of the Reddit guidelines, where this rule is famously never observed.
- tptacek 5y ago
  Please stop going on about downvoting. The guidelines specifically ask you not to.

claytongulick 5y ago

It is valuable, and I appreciate your response. It may not surprise you to know that I fundamentally disagree with downvoting in general- I feel like there a difference between signaling "this is low quality content" and "I disagree with your point". In HN there's no way to make that distinction, so if you want to express a viewpoint that's unpopular (which we should encourage in debate) you have to be willing to pay a karma penalty.

Pfhreak 5y ago
I feel the same, actually. I'm a Marxist. I often get downvoted for mentioning something about socialism or social justice in general. I believe many of those downvotes are because the community here is not particularly fond of that ideology. I get it. I'm not particularly fond of lots of ideologies. But I don't have tools here to differentiate between, "I disagree" and "Your comment is structurally bad (rude/breaks the rules/is low effort/etc." I think we'd both benefit from breaking the coupling between those two reasons to downvote. (And yes, I'm aware that downvoting because you disagree is against the rules, but I don't think that stops anyone. :D )
- tptacek 5y ago
  Downvoting because of disagreement is specifically allowed here, and pretty much always has been.
  - Pfhreak 5y ago
    You know, I could have sworn I read in the guidelines somewhere that downvotes aren't to be used just to signal that you disagree, but in diving a bit deeper I think that's just one of those things that people say, but doesn't actually ground to any specific rules/guidelines. And in fact, an early post says the opposite -- downvoting because you disagree is fine: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171
    - jimmux 5y ago
      You might be thinking of the Reddit guidelines, where this rule is famously never observed.
tptacek 5y ago
Please stop going on about downvoting. The guidelines specifically ask you not to.