I’m not deep enough into the culture to know whether disputing, or simply asking for explanation, of a downvote is “bad form”, but i would bet that using downvo

I’m not deep enough into the culture to know whether disputing, or simply asking for explanation, of a downvote is “bad form”, but i would bet that using downvotes as an alternative to a cogent rebuttal is considered “worse form”. And there’s no way to counter it except to do as gp did and call it out, asking for explanation. Unfortunately the downvoter is unlikely to ever offer an explanation. So the gp and others like him (myself at times) relies on the crowd to figure out whether or not there’s a misunderstanding. Discouraging that, when the downvote is seemingly arbitrary, doesn’t help the situation at all. How else can a downvoted commenter, and bystanders, learn?