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> Edit: Thanks for all the downvotes HN. Nothing better than to see your comment grayed out while this comment is still going strong. As it seems to be my job
by sorbus 15y ago
> Edit: Thanks for all the downvotes HN. Nothing better than to see your comment grayed out while this comment is still going strong.
As it seems to be my job to explain how messed up the voting patterns are on HN, here it is: Comments which express a opinion which people disagree with tend to be downvoted initially, because the first people to read the comments are often much more trigger happy with their downvotes. After that, if a comment puts forth genuinely good points, it tends to be upvoted if enough people see it. There are also some people who reflexively downvote comments which complain about downvoting.
I know how much it sucks to have a comment downvoted with no explanation or responses when the only reason seems to be that it expresses an unpopular opinion, especially when you've spent a lot of time writing it. But a lot of people on HN are calm and rational, and don't downvote comments simply because they disagree with them - hell, it might have just been one person who downvoted you, as that's all it takes to get a comment grayed out. But you're in the positive now, which shows that it averages out, right?
- recoiledsnake 15y agoYou're right that the comment is in the positive now(unlike some other times) but the point count is still seesawing wildly.Since HN doesn't allow people to change their votes once cast, this only means that there are a lot of downvoters who aren't even replying. Because HN only allows people to downvote if they have atleast 500 votes, it means that these downvote-without-reply-ers are otherwise respectable members of the community. You can draw your own conclusions from this.
- emmett 15y agoAnyone complaining about getting downvoted gets a nearly automatic downvote from me at this point; it's extremely highly correlated with bad comments. It also violates the site guidelines: "Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading." http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- cooldeal 15y ago>Anyone complaining about getting downvoted gets a nearly automatic downvote from me at this point; it's extremely highly correlated with bad comments. I think you mean "comments which are unpopular here", not bad comments. Also, by saying "extremely highly" you are implying that GP's commment is a bad one? Care to say how?
- emmett 15y agoNo, I mean bad comments. I've seen only a very few comments which both whine about downvotes AND have other interesting content. The comment I replied to ("You're right that ... You can draw your own conclusions from this.") is a bad comment because it contains no interesting content, just whining about "downvotes without replying". The site guidelines are there for a reason: everyone should follow them.
- kenjackson 15y agoI've found upvote/downvote quality almost completely uncorrelated with comment quality. There's a little correlation with completely off the wall comments being downvoted. But if you look at comments where there is actual thought and some interesting statements, they are just as likely to be downvoted if their position is unpopular as a relative shoddy and cliche comment that supports a popular position is to be upvoted. For this reason I generally don't care about comments at all, except for when comments are negative, as it inhibits the ability to read the comments. I'd actually like to see that practice eliminated, since I find that often comment "gems" have negative karma, but simply take on an unpopular position.