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I've never heard of this. I'm reading the original right now -- it's amazing.

QuesnayJr 5y ago
This website has serious problems with its voting culture. The serial downvoters should be banned from the site, but they never will be, because dang doesn't see the problem. You can't take disagree, and you can't agree. Whatever, I'm out. Life's too short.
- _Nat_ 5y ago
  On some sites, folks will up-vote things that they agree with and down-vote things that they disagree with. Or, sometimes up-votes are a mode of expressing emotional-support or communal-acceptance. Maybe that's what you're used to? Here, folks tend to prefer substance. They'll often down-vote you even if you express a view that they agree with if your comment doesn't contribute something worth reading. And they might up-vote your comment, even if they disagree, if it was interesting to have read. This is more of a place to exchange ideas than find validation. You're not being rejected on a personal level -- down-votes aren't personal attacks. And people don't necessarily disagree with you, either.
- sydthrowaway 5y ago
  I’ve found ‘chat’-style comments are downvoted i.e the internet equivalent of small talk.
  - howaboutnope 5y ago
    Except when they're not. For example, when something about a specific retro computing feat is posted, people will just ramble about something very faintly related that they saw or did or purchased or dreamed about recently. E.g. topic is about an Amiga accelerator card, and there will be someone mentioning how they recently cleaned up the Amiga 500 they had in the garage -- like, who cares? Exactly like the comment we're discussing now: nobody cares except the author of that comment. Yet I never see those downvoted, and I know if I responded to them pointing out that this isn't their blog, I'd get downvoted. I just looked at the front page, this is literally the first discussion I clicked on before even getting to search for "retro" or "Amiga" as I would have otherwise: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27864139 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27864139 What is the content here? "For some reason I thought something else"... okay? Yet that isn't greyed out, it is the top comment. Why? Because of "Karnaugh map"? There are no replies because it offers nothing to discuss except more such ramblings about what someone might have encountered or lazily assumed (or pretends they have assumed so they can casually drop that they know a thing).
    - pseudalopex 5y ago
      People who read the comments first like when someone highlights an interesting part of the article. It led some people to learn about Karnaugh maps probably. And it didn't have lots of competition. The top comment of this discussion is a link to the scanned book.
      - howaboutnope 5y ago
        That just means it wasn't a perfect example for what I was referring to, but if I were to go digging, I could find you ten thousands of comments like these: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11512113 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11512113 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11512254 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11512254 It really just is small talk, no information, nothing. Instead of trying to find a rationalization for these, too, why not accept that yeah, small talk is perfectly fine, until it's not, and it's frowned upon, unless it isn't? Because it contradicts the self-congratulatory notion that "folks here prefer substance"?
- chrisseaton 5y ago
  Can you not see that your down-voted comment contributes absolutely nothing? You haven't seen it before and you're reading it now... ok... so what? What can anyone do with that information? Why did you post it? What was the point?
- thehappypm 5y ago
  You're being downvoted for a really simple reason: HN doesn't like comments that boil down to "This." or "100%.". You need to add some value. It sucks that this even applies to "I'm excited, this is great!" but what can you do.

This website has serious problems with its voting culture. The serial downvoters should be banned from the site, but they never will be, because dang doesn't see the problem. You can't take disagree, and you can't agree. Whatever, I'm out. Life's too short.

_Nat_ 5y ago
On some sites, folks will up-vote things that they agree with and down-vote things that they disagree with. Or, sometimes up-votes are a mode of expressing emotional-support or communal-acceptance. Maybe that's what you're used to? Here, folks tend to prefer substance. They'll often down-vote you even if you express a view that they agree with if your comment doesn't contribute something worth reading. And they might up-vote your comment, even if they disagree, if it was interesting to have read. This is more of a place to exchange ideas than find validation. You're not being rejected on a personal level -- down-votes aren't personal attacks. And people don't necessarily disagree with you, either.
sydthrowaway 5y ago
I’ve found ‘chat’-style comments are downvoted i.e the internet equivalent of small talk.
- howaboutnope 5y ago
  Except when they're not. For example, when something about a specific retro computing feat is posted, people will just ramble about something very faintly related that they saw or did or purchased or dreamed about recently. E.g. topic is about an Amiga accelerator card, and there will be someone mentioning how they recently cleaned up the Amiga 500 they had in the garage -- like, who cares? Exactly like the comment we're discussing now: nobody cares except the author of that comment. Yet I never see those downvoted, and I know if I responded to them pointing out that this isn't their blog, I'd get downvoted. I just looked at the front page, this is literally the first discussion I clicked on before even getting to search for "retro" or "Amiga" as I would have otherwise: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27864139 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27864139 What is the content here? "For some reason I thought something else"... okay? Yet that isn't greyed out, it is the top comment. Why? Because of "Karnaugh map"? There are no replies because it offers nothing to discuss except more such ramblings about what someone might have encountered or lazily assumed (or pretends they have assumed so they can casually drop that they know a thing).
  - pseudalopex 5y ago
    People who read the comments first like when someone highlights an interesting part of the article. It led some people to learn about Karnaugh maps probably. And it didn't have lots of competition. The top comment of this discussion is a link to the scanned book.
    - howaboutnope 5y ago
      That just means it wasn't a perfect example for what I was referring to, but if I were to go digging, I could find you ten thousands of comments like these: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11512113 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11512113 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11512254 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11512254 It really just is small talk, no information, nothing. Instead of trying to find a rationalization for these, too, why not accept that yeah, small talk is perfectly fine, until it's not, and it's frowned upon, unless it isn't? Because it contradicts the self-congratulatory notion that "folks here prefer substance"?
chrisseaton 5y ago
Can you not see that your down-voted comment contributes absolutely nothing? You haven't seen it before and you're reading it now... ok... so what? What can anyone do with that information? Why did you post it? What was the point?
thehappypm 5y ago
You're being downvoted for a really simple reason: HN doesn't like comments that boil down to "This." or "100%.". You need to add some value. It sucks that this even applies to "I'm excited, this is great!" but what can you do.