4 ms·

I find that more often than not, addressing it the way I just did brings the comment back into discussion It doesn't, it just starts a pointless offtopic meta

by pvg 5y ago

I find that more often than not, addressing it the way I just did brings the comment back into discussion It doesn't, it just starts a pointless offtopic meta discussion. The forum guidelines explicitly ask you not to do that because it's boring. The votes, on average, tend to sort themselves out without such 'interventions'.

Turing_Machine 5y ago
> The forum guidelines explicitly ask you not to do that because it's boring. Is it not possible that the "forum guidelines" are wrong?
0des 5y ago
Forgive me for challenging you, but if the rules for downvotes are not applied evenly, where is the bar for which other rules must be applied evenly? It is saturday, and presumably with the exception of Dang and a few others, none of us are 'on the clock' so to speak when we are here, despite what our procrastinations during the week may indicate. If a topic on the front page list is boring, you pass it up, and all is right with the world. Why is this different with comments? (this is a rhetorical question, but I'll receive the response if you'd like to add one)
- mattcwilson 5y ago
  Just a friendly observation from a third party that this particular thread has in fact gone meta about HN, commenter behavior, and the site rules. Which are pretty clear. I wonder if it may be the case that these rules have good reason to exist, and if so, then the discussion you are looking for seems to have happened at least once before, a long time ago.
  - Turing_Machine 5y ago
    If the point keeps coming up, perhaps it needs to be addressed rather than being modded into oblivion.
    - pvg 5y ago
      It has been addressed many times and there doesn't seem to be an obvious way of further addressing it beside doing exactly what the receipts-for-downvotes people want. Neither the mods nor most HN users want that, though and the arguments against it remain compelling.
- pvg 5y ago
  Because the goal of the site is things of intellectual curiosity and repetitive things are not that. Repeated stories are usually duped off the front page and meta about votes is far, far more repetitive than the occasional story dupe or story that's not interesting to some person or another. It would absolutely eat the place alive. If you're interested, though, there is years upon years of moderator and user commentary on this: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=author%3Adang%20downvotes&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
- krapp 5y ago
  The only rule regarding downvoting is to not complain about being downvoted. Aside from that, everything is fair game, including downvoting for disagreement.
deleted 5y ago
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by pvg 5y ago

Turing_Machine 5y ago

> The forum guidelines explicitly ask you not to do that because it's boring. Is it not possible that the "forum guidelines" are wrong?

0des 5y ago

Forgive me for challenging you, but if the rules for downvotes are not applied evenly, where is the bar for which other rules must be applied evenly? It is saturday, and presumably with the exception of Dang and a few others, none of us are 'on the clock' so to speak when we are here, despite what our procrastinations during the week may indicate. If a topic on the front page list is boring, you pass it up, and all is right with the world. Why is this different with comments? (this is a rhetorical question, but I'll receive the response if you'd like to add one)

mattcwilson 5y ago
Just a friendly observation from a third party that this particular thread has in fact gone meta about HN, commenter behavior, and the site rules. Which are pretty clear. I wonder if it may be the case that these rules have good reason to exist, and if so, then the discussion you are looking for seems to have happened at least once before, a long time ago.
- Turing_Machine 5y ago
  If the point keeps coming up, perhaps it needs to be addressed rather than being modded into oblivion.
  - pvg 5y ago
    It has been addressed many times and there doesn't seem to be an obvious way of further addressing it beside doing exactly what the receipts-for-downvotes people want. Neither the mods nor most HN users want that, though and the arguments against it remain compelling.
pvg 5y ago
Because the goal of the site is things of intellectual curiosity and repetitive things are not that. Repeated stories are usually duped off the front page and meta about votes is far, far more repetitive than the occasional story dupe or story that's not interesting to some person or another. It would absolutely eat the place alive. If you're interested, though, there is years upon years of moderator and user commentary on this: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=author%3Adang%20downvotes&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
krapp 5y ago
The only rule regarding downvoting is to not complain about being downvoted. Aside from that, everything is fair game, including downvoting for disagreement.

deleted 5y ago

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