5 ms·

I'd love to hear from people who are downvoting you. Why are they downvoting you?

Jun8 15y ago
I've been on HN for some time and haven't formed a good theory about downvoting behavior here. I think in this particular case people are so anti-{apple, software patents} that they automatically resist looking at it from another angle. Same usually happens when you mention FB in a positive light on HN. EDIT: As I've said in my comment, this doesn't mean that I think Apple's ruthless approach to patents and its draconian methods of platform control are good things. It's just that the other guys do have a copy and paste problem. Maybe not in this case, but generally definitely they do.
cageface 15y ago
I almost never downvote, and didn't in this case, but I don't think this is sending the right message. Android is not a copy and adds more than enough of its own twists and innovations to justify its existence. If anything losing on trivial patents like this this is going to send the message to Asian companies that the Western markets are stacked against them no matter what they do.
- Jun8 15y ago
  "the message to Asian companies that the Western markets are stacked against them no matter what they do" Given how successful they are, that's very unlikely. However, the converse is actually true, China is quite hostile to Western business, you can read up on this on the many articles published, e.g. on the Economist. If you want to be treated fairly, you have to treat others so, too, isn't this the golden rule?
  - vetinari 15y ago
    Economist is not exactly an etalon of unbiased reporting. They have very Anglo-Saxon centred optics. It does not change the fact, that yes, China is very hostile to Western businesses.
    - mechnik 15y ago
      How do etalons and optics apply here? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etalon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etalon
      - vetinari 15y ago
        Etalon also means standard, benchmark data, other instances are compared to this one. Originally from French.
  - cageface 15y ago
    Admittedly there's some asymmetry there. A better way to say this is that it would be easy for Asian companies to conclude that there's no incentive for them to develop original IP because they're just going to get crushed in the IP courts in the West anyway.
jeffool 15y ago
This is about Samsung using Google's software and getting sued for it. How is that "teaching the East a lesson"? That's framing it as some cultural pudding match that makes no sense to most HN readers (or else he'd have a positive ranking.) Add in the fact that most people here think software patents have serious problems, at the least... And it's pretty easy to see why it was down-voted to me.
- Jun8 15y ago
  I didn't use the term "teaching the East a lesson" nor was it implied. I just said that Asian companies have long made it a habit of copying successful designs and ideas. I don't think anyone can argue with this proposition. Now, this not an "evil" thing to do. I am up for abolishing the current atrocious use of software copyrights as the next person: let all the copy cats come out with the stuff and let the market decide in a fair battle. However, to do this, the market conditions must be made level, which it definitely is not, especially in China (I don't know the situation in Taiwan or South Korea). This certainly is no "cultural pudding match" and if you are in the tech sector it is very relevant. As for downvoting: People's comments are their opinions, you may disagree or they may be wrong. What do you do when you get stuck with a boring person in a meetup, you just ignore them and move to the next person to talk. I do the same for comments here (or in any other forum) and do not downvote, unless they are offensive or badly formulated.
  - jeffool 15y ago
    Maybe you didn't mean to imply it, but that's what I got from "sending them a message." And as to if they've been successful about copying Western design choices... This is Apple suing over a Google design choice. Samsung may be the manufacturer, but it's my understand that they didn't implement feature Apple's suing over. It just resides in their tablet, and Apple doesn't want to sue Google. Yet. I think that's also why people were down-voting. (I don't have the ability yet.) Because your initial post comes off as blaming Samsung for copying a software feature, when it's Google's code. Samsung just distributed hardware that uses it.

Jun8 15y ago

I've been on HN for some time and haven't formed a good theory about downvoting behavior here. I think in this particular case people are so anti-{apple, software patents} that they automatically resist looking at it from another angle. Same usually happens when you mention FB in a positive light on HN. EDIT: As I've said in my comment, this doesn't mean that I think Apple's ruthless approach to patents and its draconian methods of platform control are good things. It's just that the other guys do have a copy and paste problem. Maybe not in this case, but generally definitely they do.

cageface 15y ago

I almost never downvote, and didn't in this case, but I don't think this is sending the right message. Android is not a copy and adds more than enough of its own twists and innovations to justify its existence. If anything losing on trivial patents like this this is going to send the message to Asian companies that the Western markets are stacked against them no matter what they do.

Jun8 15y ago
"the message to Asian companies that the Western markets are stacked against them no matter what they do" Given how successful they are, that's very unlikely. However, the converse is actually true, China is quite hostile to Western business, you can read up on this on the many articles published, e.g. on the Economist. If you want to be treated fairly, you have to treat others so, too, isn't this the golden rule?
- vetinari 15y ago
  Economist is not exactly an etalon of unbiased reporting. They have very Anglo-Saxon centred optics. It does not change the fact, that yes, China is very hostile to Western businesses.
  - mechnik 15y ago
    How do etalons and optics apply here? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etalon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etalon
    - vetinari 15y ago
      Etalon also means standard, benchmark data, other instances are compared to this one. Originally from French.
- cageface 15y ago
  Admittedly there's some asymmetry there. A better way to say this is that it would be easy for Asian companies to conclude that there's no incentive for them to develop original IP because they're just going to get crushed in the IP courts in the West anyway.

jeffool 15y ago

This is about Samsung using Google's software and getting sued for it. How is that "teaching the East a lesson"? That's framing it as some cultural pudding match that makes no sense to most HN readers (or else he'd have a positive ranking.) Add in the fact that most people here think software patents have serious problems, at the least... And it's pretty easy to see why it was down-voted to me.

Jun8 15y ago
I didn't use the term "teaching the East a lesson" nor was it implied. I just said that Asian companies have long made it a habit of copying successful designs and ideas. I don't think anyone can argue with this proposition. Now, this not an "evil" thing to do. I am up for abolishing the current atrocious use of software copyrights as the next person: let all the copy cats come out with the stuff and let the market decide in a fair battle. However, to do this, the market conditions must be made level, which it definitely is not, especially in China (I don't know the situation in Taiwan or South Korea). This certainly is no "cultural pudding match" and if you are in the tech sector it is very relevant. As for downvoting: People's comments are their opinions, you may disagree or they may be wrong. What do you do when you get stuck with a boring person in a meetup, you just ignore them and move to the next person to talk. I do the same for comments here (or in any other forum) and do not downvote, unless they are offensive or badly formulated.
- jeffool 15y ago
  Maybe you didn't mean to imply it, but that's what I got from "sending them a message." And as to if they've been successful about copying Western design choices... This is Apple suing over a Google design choice. Samsung may be the manufacturer, but it's my understand that they didn't implement feature Apple's suing over. It just resides in their tablet, and Apple doesn't want to sue Google. Yet. I think that's also why people were down-voting. (I don't have the ability yet.) Because your initial post comes off as blaming Samsung for copying a software feature, when it's Google's code. Samsung just distributed hardware that uses it.