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I don't think this is a recent trend... I've noticed it since I've been active on HN. But it's very true. I've noticed that very controversial comments will rec
by Cushman 15y ago
I don't think this is a recent trend... I've noticed it since I've been active on HN. But it's very true. I've noticed that very controversial comments will receive a lot of downvotes, but relatively few comments that disagree with them.
I'll confess I've been guilty of this in the past: downvoting comments I disagree with, or those which I think are false. On reflection, that is obviously wrong. Downvotes are for comments which are off-topic, unnnecessary for anyone to read. Not those with with there is legitimate disagreement. For those, commenting is the appropriate response.
I can only reinforce the OP: Downvotes are for off-topic, irrelevant, spam comments. If you disagree with a comment, comment to say why, or upvote a comment that expresses your disagreement. Downvoting a comment signifies nothing.
- chc 15y agoFactually incorrect or relevant but info-light statements are often just as much noise as off-topic comments. For example, the top-voted comment on a post about Clojure says "Clojure is such utter shit. It doesn't even have integers. Don't use this crap." Are you really saying we shouldn't downvote that? The one bit of signal (it doesn't have integers) is false, and the rest of it is just flaming. By your metric, it's a good comment — it's on topic and it's not spam. But by any reasonable metric, it's a terrible comment, and I would like to discourage such mindlessness.