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Down voting because you disagree with someone isn't what we strive for here is it? Edit: Ok I get it, disagreement is an encouraged reason for downvotes on HN.

Down voting because you disagree with someone isn't what we strive for here is it? Edit: Ok I get it, disagreement is an encouraged reason for downvotes on HN. If a reason for an opinion is given, a refuting response is preferred, but in this case, no reason was given.

mgaunard 3y ago
I don't remember ever seeing another reason I had a comment downvoted.
- tialaramex 3y ago
  I used to sometimes get downvoted heavily for disagreeing with longtime HN favourite Thomas Ptacek, but that eased off a lot after one time I'm like "LOL, the transcripts for your show are so wrong" and Thomas misread that as me claiming the experts on the show are wrong rather than the transcripts so he was indignant. Initially I got the most downvotes I think I'd ever seen†, and then Thomas realised oops, yeah, he's not saying what I thought he's saying and it shot back up over the course of an hour or so. IIRC the auto-transcripts for example transcribe PKIX (an RFC explaining how we shall use the X509 certificate system for the Internet, and the regime resulting from that RFC) as "Peacocks". Hilarious. But, not a criticism of the person on the show (Ryan Sleevi I believe, who I rather like although we've never met in person). I have written things I don't feel good about, especially trolling groups who believe something I don't, and deserved to be downvoted even if they were strictly true. But those mostly get -1 or -2 or something. Thomas' fans just keep hitting that down arrow apparently. Other than disagreeing with Thomas, the main way I got sizeable negative voting was being wrong and then going to sleep without correcting it. Say 2+2 = 3 on a Thursday evening, but correct it to "1+2 = 3" a quarter hour later? Probably get one or two downvotes. Leave it that way overnight? Wake up to 10 downvotes at least. People will kick you if you don't react. I remember picking an erroneous example in one of the endless Rust v C++ threads, and then going to bed, and yup, very clear I was wrong when I woke up.
  - mgaunard 3y ago
    I always find it weird when people even pay attention to what the name of the person is. A comment should be evaluated on its own, not based on who it was written by.
    - aw1621107 3y ago
      That's a nice sentiment, but I'm not sure it's always a practical one to take simply because no one has the expertise/time/knowledge to evaluate all of the comments they read for accuracy/completeness/etc, especially if commenters are disagreeing on a subject you are not an expert in. For example, if a comment claims an article is wrong about the development and use of the Nagle algorithm, I am very much not well-equipped to evaluate the comment on its own since that is not an area I know much about. If I see that comment was written by Animats, though, I can be reasonably confident I should trust the comment over the article, since he invented the algorithm.
      - mgaunard 3y ago
        The correct approach is to assume that people bear no ill will -- I believe that is even part of the posting guidelines. If someone makes the statement that something in an article is incorrect, and fails to takes into account some minutiae, it is probably because the person is knowledgeable about the topic and believes it to be the case. There is no need to research who the author is, or to mod the person down because he appears to be a contrarian that doesn't follow the hivemind. If anything, that's just an interesting subject to look into.
        aw1621107 3y ago
        > The correct approach is to assume that people bear no ill will -- I believe that is even part of the posting guidelines. It is, but intent is distinct from correctness. I can believe that everyone is commenting in good faith and stating their honest beliefs, but that is little help when commenters take contrary positions and I would like to determine who is correct despite not being knowledgeable myself. Under those circumstances, authorship is a useful signal. It doesn't need to be the sole determining factor, of course, but it's better than nothing.
steveklabnik 3y ago
This is not Reddit. It is considered acceptable, even preferable, behavior here, and has been basically forever. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16131314 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16131314
- galangalalgol 3y ago
  Thanks for the link. I did not know. Also thanks for your work on rust. And to be fair, there was no reason givin for the dislike of headers, so all it contributes to the discussion is that there is an alternative view. I like modules, rust has been my daily driver at work for a couple years now, with some cuda for things that are too slow, and usually prototyping algorithms in matlab. I can see the viewpoint though, that headers made for an easy way to convey an api before c++ added all the inline stuff.
  - steveklabnik 3y ago
    It’s all good. You’re welcome. I can see it both ways: its sucks to get downvoted and not know why. But also, here we are talking about something that’s not C++ modules in a thread about C++ modules. The surest way to get massively downvoted here is to complain about downvoted, though. People seem to relish in it.
- patrick451 3y ago
  And this is why HN has degenerated into a homogeneous echo chamber for many topics.

mgaunard 3y ago

I don't remember ever seeing another reason I had a comment downvoted.

tialaramex 3y ago
I used to sometimes get downvoted heavily for disagreeing with longtime HN favourite Thomas Ptacek, but that eased off a lot after one time I'm like "LOL, the transcripts for your show are so wrong" and Thomas misread that as me claiming the experts on the show are wrong rather than the transcripts so he was indignant. Initially I got the most downvotes I think I'd ever seen†, and then Thomas realised oops, yeah, he's not saying what I thought he's saying and it shot back up over the course of an hour or so. IIRC the auto-transcripts for example transcribe PKIX (an RFC explaining how we shall use the X509 certificate system for the Internet, and the regime resulting from that RFC) as "Peacocks". Hilarious. But, not a criticism of the person on the show (Ryan Sleevi I believe, who I rather like although we've never met in person). I have written things I don't feel good about, especially trolling groups who believe something I don't, and deserved to be downvoted even if they were strictly true. But those mostly get -1 or -2 or something. Thomas' fans just keep hitting that down arrow apparently. Other than disagreeing with Thomas, the main way I got sizeable negative voting was being wrong and then going to sleep without correcting it. Say 2+2 = 3 on a Thursday evening, but correct it to "1+2 = 3" a quarter hour later? Probably get one or two downvotes. Leave it that way overnight? Wake up to 10 downvotes at least. People will kick you if you don't react. I remember picking an erroneous example in one of the endless Rust v C++ threads, and then going to bed, and yup, very clear I was wrong when I woke up.
- mgaunard 3y ago
  I always find it weird when people even pay attention to what the name of the person is. A comment should be evaluated on its own, not based on who it was written by.
  - aw1621107 3y ago
    That's a nice sentiment, but I'm not sure it's always a practical one to take simply because no one has the expertise/time/knowledge to evaluate all of the comments they read for accuracy/completeness/etc, especially if commenters are disagreeing on a subject you are not an expert in. For example, if a comment claims an article is wrong about the development and use of the Nagle algorithm, I am very much not well-equipped to evaluate the comment on its own since that is not an area I know much about. If I see that comment was written by Animats, though, I can be reasonably confident I should trust the comment over the article, since he invented the algorithm.
    - mgaunard 3y ago
      The correct approach is to assume that people bear no ill will -- I believe that is even part of the posting guidelines. If someone makes the statement that something in an article is incorrect, and fails to takes into account some minutiae, it is probably because the person is knowledgeable about the topic and believes it to be the case. There is no need to research who the author is, or to mod the person down because he appears to be a contrarian that doesn't follow the hivemind. If anything, that's just an interesting subject to look into.
      - aw1621107 3y ago
        > The correct approach is to assume that people bear no ill will -- I believe that is even part of the posting guidelines. It is, but intent is distinct from correctness. I can believe that everyone is commenting in good faith and stating their honest beliefs, but that is little help when commenters take contrary positions and I would like to determine who is correct despite not being knowledgeable myself. Under those circumstances, authorship is a useful signal. It doesn't need to be the sole determining factor, of course, but it's better than nothing.

steveklabnik 3y ago

This is not Reddit. It is considered acceptable, even preferable, behavior here, and has been basically forever. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16131314 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16131314

galangalalgol 3y ago
Thanks for the link. I did not know. Also thanks for your work on rust. And to be fair, there was no reason givin for the dislike of headers, so all it contributes to the discussion is that there is an alternative view. I like modules, rust has been my daily driver at work for a couple years now, with some cuda for things that are too slow, and usually prototyping algorithms in matlab. I can see the viewpoint though, that headers made for an easy way to convey an api before c++ added all the inline stuff.
- steveklabnik 3y ago
  It’s all good. You’re welcome. I can see it both ways: its sucks to get downvoted and not know why. But also, here we are talking about something that’s not C++ modules in a thread about C++ modules. The surest way to get massively downvoted here is to complain about downvoted, though. People seem to relish in it.
patrick451 3y ago
And this is why HN has degenerated into a homogeneous echo chamber for many topics.