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Interestingly though, it seems perfectly acceptable on here to express positive feelings about style and esthetics. No one gets downvoted several points below z

Interestingly though, it seems perfectly acceptable on here to express positive feelings about style and esthetics. No one gets downvoted several points below zero for not providing "arguments" for such opinions. It's simply accepted as a matter of taste.

sanswork 13y ago
When someone is agreeing you already know what they are looking for as they've expressed it in their agreement. When someone says something is ugly you don't know what they think is ugly about the design so it doesn't provide any thing but a comment.
- fauigerzigerk 13y ago
  No, I often don't know what it is that makes people gush about the beauty of multi faceted things like operating systems, gadgets or APIs. But be that as it may, I doubt this is what causes the downvoting. I'm pretty sure a statement like "colors and icons are ugly" would have provoked a similar reaction.
  - vanderZwan 13y ago
    Because that's still not telling us what the problems are, just where to look for them. Stating something like "X is inconsistent with Y making the whole thing restless and messy, and if they did the font alignment like this the whole thing would have a more orderly clean look" wouldn't have.
  - DanBC 13y ago
    Saying "X is pretty" is not much use, but it is not mean. Saying "X is ugly" is not much use and is mean, thus more likely to attract downvotes. Saying "I think X is ugly. Here's why {list of subjective reasoning}" may be useful and is not as mean.
vanderZwan 13y ago
Good point. I think it is because positive opinions without good reasons are perceived as encouragement ("I like what you do, keep going!") instead of criticism, while negative opinions are criticism. The latter requires arguments to be useful as feedback. Of course, saying why you do like something would also make those remarks more valuable as criticism - you got a good point there. (Note that I'm not saying Nathan Osullivan is necessarily wrong in his judgement - I might disagree with it but he can still have valid reasons for disliking it. It's just that it's pretty a useless remark if he gives no arguments why he has that opinion)
chris_wot 13y ago
That's probably because negativity is not something that should be encouraged. If you want to be negative, then that's fine - but you really need to explain why you are being negative. Negative energy is quite unproductive.

sanswork 13y ago

When someone is agreeing you already know what they are looking for as they've expressed it in their agreement. When someone says something is ugly you don't know what they think is ugly about the design so it doesn't provide any thing but a comment.

fauigerzigerk 13y ago
No, I often don't know what it is that makes people gush about the beauty of multi faceted things like operating systems, gadgets or APIs. But be that as it may, I doubt this is what causes the downvoting. I'm pretty sure a statement like "colors and icons are ugly" would have provoked a similar reaction.
- vanderZwan 13y ago
  Because that's still not telling us what the problems are, just where to look for them. Stating something like "X is inconsistent with Y making the whole thing restless and messy, and if they did the font alignment like this the whole thing would have a more orderly clean look" wouldn't have.
- DanBC 13y ago
  Saying "X is pretty" is not much use, but it is not mean. Saying "X is ugly" is not much use and is mean, thus more likely to attract downvotes. Saying "I think X is ugly. Here's why {list of subjective reasoning}" may be useful and is not as mean.

vanderZwan 13y ago

Good point. I think it is because positive opinions without good reasons are perceived as encouragement ("I like what you do, keep going!") instead of criticism, while negative opinions are criticism. The latter requires arguments to be useful as feedback. Of course, saying why you do like something would also make those remarks more valuable as criticism - you got a good point there. (Note that I'm not saying Nathan Osullivan is necessarily wrong in his judgement - I might disagree with it but he can still have valid reasons for disliking it. It's just that it's pretty a useless remark if he gives no arguments why he has that opinion)

chris_wot 13y ago

That's probably because negativity is not something that should be encouraged. If you want to be negative, then that's fine - but you really need to explain why you are being negative. Negative energy is quite unproductive.