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Not particularly. The closest thing to a benefit for gaining karma is the ability to downvote others at 500, and even then that's not very useful unless others

Not particularly. The closest thing to a benefit for gaining karma is the ability to downvote others at 500, and even then that's not very useful unless others join in. Personally, I wish that downvoting wasn't an option at all, since its only purpose is to potentially hide opinions you disagree with. Sure, the purpose is SUPPOSED to be about keeping discussions relevant, but we all know that's not what people use it for.

xavdid 4y ago
> since its only purpose is to potentially hide opinions you disagree with People can certainly use it that way, but I think it's useful for de-emphasizing irrelevant or inflammatory comments as well.
- hutzlibu 4y ago
  "People can certainly use it that way, but I think it's useful for de-emphasizing irrelevant or inflammatory comments as well." This is my problem with it, that is mainly used to hide other opinions. Even flagging gets abused for that. I want to read other opinions, but what I don't want to read are lowe effort crap comments. They can and should be downvoted into nothingness, but downvoting well written out opinions is something I strongly disagree with.
- aitchnyu 4y ago
  Also doing my part to discourage inane comments like "awesome".
- the_only_law 4y ago
  > but I think it's useful for de-emphasizing irrelevant or inflammatory comments as well. Isn’t that what flagging is for?
  - fragmede 4y ago
    yeah but that's an extra click and a page load to get into the comment to flag it, so unless it's particularly egregious I'll usually just downvote and move on with my life. Which I think is the right design.
  - pessimizer 4y ago
    A comment can be thoughtless or shitty but not rulebreaking.
miloignis 4y ago
I browse with showdead on permanantly, and I normally find that things that have been downvoted to oblivion were truely for spam or inflammatory/bad faith. That's not always the case, but it is definitly the majority I see. Unpopular opinions I normally find stay near 0. It's not perfect, but I do think HN tends to actually behave decently with respect to downvotes (and I think needing 500 karma to do so is a big part of it - you have to spend the time and get familiar with the culture first)
mitthrowaway2 4y ago
> we all know that's not what people use it for. I'll volunteer myself as an exception to "we all know". I've never thought that downvoting was meant to be used to express disagreement, and I rarely see it being used this way. But I do sometimes see a chain of comments where at least one commenter is clearly misreading / misunderstanding their conversation partner, and getting downvoted for this might feel like getting downvoted for disagreement.

xavdid 4y ago

> since its only purpose is to potentially hide opinions you disagree with People can certainly use it that way, but I think it's useful for de-emphasizing irrelevant or inflammatory comments as well.

hutzlibu 4y ago
"People can certainly use it that way, but I think it's useful for de-emphasizing irrelevant or inflammatory comments as well." This is my problem with it, that is mainly used to hide other opinions. Even flagging gets abused for that. I want to read other opinions, but what I don't want to read are lowe effort crap comments. They can and should be downvoted into nothingness, but downvoting well written out opinions is something I strongly disagree with.
aitchnyu 4y ago
Also doing my part to discourage inane comments like "awesome".
the_only_law 4y ago
> but I think it's useful for de-emphasizing irrelevant or inflammatory comments as well. Isn’t that what flagging is for?
- fragmede 4y ago
  yeah but that's an extra click and a page load to get into the comment to flag it, so unless it's particularly egregious I'll usually just downvote and move on with my life. Which I think is the right design.
- pessimizer 4y ago
  A comment can be thoughtless or shitty but not rulebreaking.

miloignis 4y ago

I browse with showdead on permanantly, and I normally find that things that have been downvoted to oblivion were truely for spam or inflammatory/bad faith. That's not always the case, but it is definitly the majority I see. Unpopular opinions I normally find stay near 0. It's not perfect, but I do think HN tends to actually behave decently with respect to downvotes (and I think needing 500 karma to do so is a big part of it - you have to spend the time and get familiar with the culture first)

mitthrowaway2 4y ago

> we all know that's not what people use it for. I'll volunteer myself as an exception to "we all know". I've never thought that downvoting was meant to be used to express disagreement, and I rarely see it being used this way. But I do sometimes see a chain of comments where at least one commenter is clearly misreading / misunderstanding their conversation partner, and getting downvoted for this might feel like getting downvoted for disagreement.