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Ask HN: Do you upvote? Why or why not?
I recently realized that I rarely upvote or downvote so I decided to be more of a good community citizen and start doing so. Then came the question of what does an upvote or downvote mean? Do I downvote an opinion I disagree with even though it is interesting and well reasoned? (By some reasoning, perhaps I should actually be upvoting such comments). I'm obviously overthinking here but I'm curious so indulge me. What is your heuristic for up/down-voting?
- DamonHD 3y ago(I assume that you mean the comments, though the upvote/flag on a top-level item can be similar.) I can upvote (or downvote) for content that I agree/disagree with as well as how much the comment does/doesn't contribute to the debate, as you suggest. Sometimes those are finely enough balanced for me not to do either! I tend to reserve downvotes for things that are inflammatory or shallow or dishonest or similar.
- LinuxBender 3y agoI upvote submissions that I think might lead to interesting discussion whether I agree with them or not and whether I like them or not. I downvote comments that attack or degrade people ad-hominem and such or that derail the topic or try to bait people.
- bediger4000 3y agoI upvote a lot. I also downvote and flag culture wars BS submissions and comments.
- electroagenda 3y agoI upvote topics that are interesting in my opinion. I still cannot downvote... What means I am only allowed to have a positive attitude with other's comments. P.D. What karma do you actually need to gain the right to downvote?
- burnished 3y agoIts 100, I think?
- LeonenTheDK 3y agoSpeaking as someone with over 100, it is not. Seen frequent references to 500 though.
- lostlogin 3y ago501 I think? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7606145 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7606145 Here is a nice list of HN features. https://github.com/minimaxir/hacker-news-undocumented/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/minimaxir/hacker-news-undocumented/blob/m...
- anononaut 3y agoI upvote less than once daily. I don't downvote because I make new accounts on occasion.
- f33d5173 3y agoI upvote things that I think should be more visible, especially contrasting opinions in a sea of yes-men. I would downvote someone who adds nothing productive to the conversation, for example by arguing a point that has already been raised without responding to what's been said.
- Ajedi32 3y agoYes! Some of my favorite discussions I see on Hacker News are the ones where there are good points on both sides and I'm able to just go down the line and upvote an entire conversation thread of people debating with each other.
- rcarr 3y agoI rarely upvote posts themselves because I forget (I'm trying to do it more), I do upvote comments that I really agree with, offer a really insightful or knowledgable take, or posts that open or change my perspective. I almost never downvote. The only comments I feel should be downvoted are ones containing blatant hate speech like racism. Anything else is tribalism and I would rather all voices be given a chance to speak. If they're wrong then they won't accumulate upvotes. It's like comedy - if it's funny, people will laugh, if it's not, then they won't. This is why I'm not particularly a fan of the increasing unreadability of downvoted comments - it feels like silencing people. It also gives undue influence to the first readers of the piece and allows individuals or groups with agendas to target and downvote things they don't like with the aim of getting it taken out of the conversation early. I do unfortunately observe this behaviour on contentious topics more regularly than I would like. If you don't agree with a comment, you should either just ignore it, leave a comment stating why you disagree or ask why the commentator has come to that conclusion. This is far more likely to have a positive impact than downvoting, which is only going to make someone feel attacked, alienated and misunderstood.
- subpixel 3y agoI realize I probably never upvote posts either, thanks for the reminder.
- SCUSKU 3y agoI agree with you there. I believe I've seen dang comment that downvoting shouldn't be for disagreements, rather for poor quality content, regardless of whether or not you agree. On Reddit, downvoting is always a matter of personal opinion, and so it took me a while to adjust to the downvoting style HN advocates for. But I'm mostly used to it now and I have to say I enjoy it. It makes me have to think more critically about why I want to downvote something. Many times I have stopped myself from downvoting something solely because I disagreed, not because it was hateful, racist, etc.
- AnimalMuppet 3y agoI took the stance that downvoting for disagreement was not OK on HN. dang replied to me, saying that it was allowed. (Though perhaps not ideal? I don't remember - it's been a while. Also, his stance may have changed since.)
- jppope 3y agosure! share the love (if it deserves love).
- burnished 3y agoI upvote things I think are valuable; empathy, humor, thoughtful explanations. Just when I think about it. I also upvote comments that sparked a lot of good discussion for visibility. I downvote things that are rude, mostly terse point scoring behavior (not addressing what was said but implying something about the poster). I flag outright aggro stuff.
- Kelteseth 3y agoYes but it is awful on mobile because I have to zoom in and always check if I did down vote by mistake.
- rcarr 3y agoI feel this pain. I went through my profile the other day and found I'd flagged something like ten posts entirely accidentally, presumably by hitting the flag button whilst scrolling on mobile.
- Kelteseth 3y agoYeah same. And I don't want to install an app with a better UI just to browse Hackernews
- Disruptive_Dave 3y agoNever upvote posts. I upvote comments, though my bar for upvoting is embarrassingly higher than my bar for dishing out downvotes.
- sokoloff 3y agoFor a time, I tried modifying my behavior by hiding downvote links on via a Stylus CSS: [title=downvote] { display: none } I had an already high upvote:downvote ratio, but this made me even more conscious of the few times I bothered to downvote a comment (because it meant I had to take extra steps to disable that CSS). I mostly only downvote for flamebait or outrageously unproductive comments.
- hkt 3y agoI upvote items that are of interest to me, or things I'd rather see at the top of the front page (compared to what is there already). For comments, I'll upvote insight or prosocial behaviour (praise directed at a free software author's comment, say). Plus, anything by people who are clearly authoritative and making posts which contain valuable perspectives. Plus, anything people need to hear. Downvotes I try to reserve for people who are rude, clueless, or obtuse. An example here might be the "but solar panels use fossil fuels for their production" types of comments where the obvious next question - "do they produce more energy than they take to make?" - is left unasked and unanswered by the poster. Disingenuous comments, in other words.
- Sohcahtoa82 3y ago> Downvotes I try to reserve for people who are rude, clueless, or obtuse. I wish I could double-downvote to obtuse comments, specifically the people who are not only needlessly pedantic, but outright wrong in their pedantry.
- c7DJTLrn 3y agoI upvote things I agree with and downvote things I disagree with. Just kidding. I only vote on comments, and pretty rarely.
- HumblyTossed 3y agoI do. I upvote comments I agree with. I upvote comments I disagree with, but other people seem to agree with. I downvote obnoxious or distateful comments.
- perceptronas 3y agoI upvote things that are interesting to me and hope they will be interesting for others. I rarely downvote. Maybe only rude comments? Not sure, but it happens rarely.
- forinti 3y agoI upvote stories that are important to me; those that are just interesting I rarely upvote.
- rpmisms 3y agoI don't downvote unless it's an obvious troll. I upvote if it's well written ANDOR it's a well-made point. If I get into a debate in the comments with a smart person, I upvote every reply they make to remind myself that they deserve respect.
- crznp 3y agoI cannot downvote here anyway, which is fine. On other platforms, I have come to believe that it is healthier for me to reply to content that I feel good about upvoting, and just moving on if I am tempted to downvote.
- rpmisms 3y agoThere is a karma threshold for downvoting, which is very smart.
- AnimalMuppet 3y agoI upvote what I consider to be good points. That is not always something I agree with. "Disagree but made me think" is about the highest praise possible on HN. I downvote things that I think are factually wrong, or things that are opinions but are stated as fact and are (IMO) wrong. I also downvote hostility, aggression, name calling, flamebait/trolling, blatant politics, spam, bad faith arguments. I sometimes downvote arguing without actually listening to the parent's argument.
- kaffeeringe 3y agoI upvote post that I want more people to see.
- sndwnm 3y agoI never downvote and almost never upvote. Having spent time on 4chan and other imageboards, I have seen discussions work just fine without any ranking mechanism, and as such I have become skeptical of the usual upvote schemes. When there are no ranks (or even usernames), you need to use your own thinking to evaluate the posts. Even if it requires more scrolling, it's worth it. If you are looking for the hot parts of the discussion, you can use the number of replies to a given post as a proxy — it could be considered a UI issue of HN that it's not shown very clearly here.
- marginalia_nu 3y agoI mostly upvote posts that make an interesting argument.
- ge96 3y agoI do. As part of keeping track of what I found interesting/participated in. I rarely downvote though and I favorite stuff that I really want to keep.
- stephenitis 3y agoThe upvote / downvote button is really tiny on mobile. my thumb doesn't hit the mark often enough for me to often do it. Maybe the color doesn't draw my eye enough. it seems random when I really assess something I like. Sometimes when I see good content that has a low vote count I upvote it.
- kaycebasques 3y ago> Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. Upvote thoughtful / substantive comments, regardless of personal opinion. Downvote unthoughtful / unsubstantive comments, regardless of personal opinion.
- dpkirchner 3y agoI upvote comments that make cogent arguments or provide useful information. I downvote comments that are trolling (feigning ignorance to make a point, promoting hate, etc) and whining about being downvoted. I haven't been good about upvoting posts, but when I do it's because I find them interesting.
- sshine 3y agoI upvote when an answer deserves to be higher. I don’t downvote good answers that should be listed lower, however. I also upvote answers to my comments. Also when I disagree with them, as long as they’re not toxic. I generally don’t downvote.
- Georgelemental 3y agoI upvote liberally; anything that makes me think "hmm, intereting", or that I feel contributes to the site, gets an upvote. If something seems like it could be personally relevant, I favorite it. I only donvote for egregious factual errors/blatant and obstinate misunderstandings.
- hbcondo714 3y agoI just did a Show HN[1] and received a star on the GitHub repo[2] but no upvote on the HN submission itself [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37917368 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37917368 [2] https://github.com/hbcondo/last10k_liveview https://github.com/hbcondo/last10k_liveview
- sidcool 3y agoI am a big upvoter. Especially for Launch HN posts.
- danenania 3y agoUpvoted. :) You can make a a bunch of builders’ days by going to the New Show HNs page and upvoting/commenting on any that look interesting. Sometimes a single upvote and comment is all that’s needed to get others to take a look and get the ball rolling. We should all do this more often (myself included).
- jddj 3y agoI tend to upvote what I agree with but I think I manage to only downvote low effort / uncharitable takes / spam
- graypegg 3y agoUp vote: was something interesting (not necessarily that I agree) No vote: most things Down vote: actively ignoring what someone is saying, "why doesn't this blog have a dark theme" Flag: spam Only place I try to keep to those ideals! I'm guilty of only upvoting/liking stuff I agree with fully on other sites, but really trying to use "was interesting enough to reread" as a metric for upvoting here.
- v64 3y agoI upvote things that I learned from or gave me a new perspective on. Reading the comment was a net positive use of my time. This can include comments I disagree with. Similarly, I downvote things that I don't perceive as a positive use of time for me or for anyone else. Spam, grossly incorrect information, deliberately inflammatory comments meant to elicit a certain reaction, etc. If a comment was a waste of time for me personally, but I can see how someone else might benefit from seeing it, I'll do nothing.
- ydnaclementine 3y agoI would say HN is very generous on upvotes (and downvotes too probably). I post mostly random thoughts, and I end up with points
- omgmajk 3y agoI usually upvote for these reasons: 1. I find this interesting 2. I agree with this 3. This is cool 4. I learned something new 5. Bookmarking purposes I usually downvote for these reasons: 1. This is trolling 2. This is a terrible/dumb take 3. This is a really over the top political comment that really has nothing (or very little) to do with the subject 4. This is misinformation Overall I upvote a lot more than I downvote and I do so many times a day.
- dfxm12 3y agoMaybe there's guidelines, but I think the point of community moderation is to use it how you see fit. The big thing to keep in mind that if you want to downvote opinions just because you disagree with them, no one will know, so who cares? I don't vote much in big threads, cause I'm not sure it's "fair" to lower ranked threads to only vote on the top threads. This is hardly a hard and fast rule for myself though, because sometimes the top thread is top for a reason and deserves a vote! For upvoting, I vote based on if it was something I was going to say (no need to say it again), if it was interesting, if it was provocative but soundly sourced, or just all around well expressed. What I really focus on when downvoting is posts made in bad faith. If someone is setting up a false dichotomy, strawman, hiding behind "just asking questions", or otherwise being disingenuous, I downvote. I'm here for a discussion, not to play those types of games...
- karaterobot 3y agoI forget to upvote posts, but I upvote comments a lot more often. Sometimes I'll go to the bottom of a thread and just upvote every decent comment that appears to have been downvoted for no reason other than "I disagree with this".
- axus 3y agoUsually other people have handled the downvoting. I will check out the downvoted replies, and if there's no good reason for it to be downvoted I'll vote it up. And if something is really very informative and low on the list I'll vote it up. I'll have to stop myself from voting up the jokes, though I'll never vote them down.
- Sohcahtoa82 3y ago> I'll have to stop myself from voting up the jokes, though I'll never vote them down. I'll upvote jokes if they're clever and genuinely funny. I'll downvote jokes that are low effort and reddit-like. Like if I saw a "Google en passant" chain, I'd downvote all three comments.
- n8henrie 3y agoAfter nearly a decade I still can't downvote (I think there's a minimum score -- 500? EDIT: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37918382 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37918382 I upvote liberally, mostly comments that bring me new information, eloquently elucidate obscure truths or frequently misunderstood concepts, make me laugh, point me to good resources, etc. I admit that I often forget to upvote good posts, since I usually click through to the article before I know whether or not I think it deserves an upvote, or sometimes I get lost in the comments and forget.
- randcraw 3y agoI upvote comments that add information to the topic and it's coherent, and especially if its source is documented. I downvote comments that are mere opinion, not constructive, or are off topic to the point of irrelevance.
- bananapub 3y agoI upvote all the useful, on-topic comments that add to the conversation that I see, so about once a day. I downvote all the off-topic, hobby-horse-pushing, badly-informed, self-interested or -aggrandising, wrong, mean and repetitive comments, it's basically a full-time job.
- voisin 3y agoI would upvote if the button was more easily pressed on mobile!
- lhousa 3y agoBy the time I visit HN, all posts are already upvoted for me. Thanks to all the voters. So I hardly feel the need to. I don't know how posts with zero votes start off but much appreciation to whoever reads them and upvotes.
- dredmorbius 3y agoGenerally: - Upvote posts and comments I'd like to see represented, are insightful, and/or make me think. - Downvote: posts against HN guidelines (either in source material or the submission contents, e.g., editorialised title, duplicate submission), comments which don't add to the discussion. I've been making a point of upvoting what I read as sincere substantive engagement even where that disagrees with me. One aspect of HN I find frustrating is that there's rarely much by way of substantive discussion, and HN's own systems often read that as a flamewar (e.g., a thread that's nested deeply and shifted far to the right). That's often the case but is not always the case. With time I'm finding myself more favourably inclined to systems that have "flat" discussion threads. Google+ was one of these, and effectively each response was simply appended to the end of the thread. Conventions of mentioning an earlier reply and quoting a small bit of context emerged. The dyanmics and mechanics of posts differed from HN: there was always a directly-involved moderator (effectively), the post's own author. Whether or not that author would moderate, and how fairly they did so, of course, varied tremendously. People who were good at this, though, often had excellent discussions. Threads were capped at 500 comments. Good discussion typically had probably on the order of 10--50 active participants tops (and often fewer). That was enough for a number of comments from each, and threads rarely hit the cap (though occasionally did). The end result read far more like a transcript of a real-life conversation than, say, HN or Reddit threads (or Usenet back in the day). Again, HN tends not to produce such interactions, though they occur occasionally. Reddit is even worse for this --- it's where conversations go to die.
- ChrisArchitect 3y agoIt's curation and helping the site content. Participate in the site you're a part of.
- gjvc 3y agoIronic
- glenstein 3y agoI frequently try to upvote to encourage good discussion and good behavior. If someone's posting helpful links, or has a thoughtful anecdote, or says something directly responsive to a question, or asks a good question, I like for those to be recognized and so I try to do my part.
- taylodl 3y agoI upvote good/insightful points people make and downvote trolls and obviously misinformed/willfully ignorant points people make or stuff that's completely off-topic. Why do I do this? It's my little contribution to the community to push the garbage to the side and let the good stuff rise to the top and spur good discussion.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- babyeater9000 3y agoI upvote links and paywall bypasses. I upvote polite and logical behavior. I upvote funny jokes. I don't downvote anything.