4 ms·

I don't think there should be a downvote option. There should be an option for upvoting, and an option for flagging offensive content/content that is against t

I don't think there should be a downvote option. There should be an option for upvoting, and an option for flagging offensive content/content that is against the HN community guidelines. As it stands, there is no visual emphasis on high quality comments. There is a visual emphasis on low quality comments. Why is that? Apologies in advance if I am making an ignorant statement.

lazyant 12y ago
agree: 'upvote' or 'flag' and if you click 'flag' you have to choose an option like 'insulting' 'revealing personal info' etc
- jonalmeida 12y ago
  This goes well with my idea of providing comments on why you downvoted to give the author context. It's somewhere down here.
minimaxir 12y ago
High-quality comments rank higher, so they're the first read and no signal is needed to differentiate them. You can flag comments by clicking the direct link to a comment too.
rokhayakebe 12y ago
J, I cannot express how much I agree with you. The base logic in downvoting is so flawed it baffles me. How can you take away something from someone if you did not give it to them in the first place. Downvoting, especially without commenting, is exactly what the First Amendment was established for.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- DanBC 12y ago
  Jesus fucking christ the first amendment has nothing to do with downvotes on HN. I would much rather have people downvoting comments they hate than have to read through tiresome boring arguments about stuff hat has been endlessly argued about in the past.
  - rokhayakebe 12y ago
    Your perspective is narrow, but I respect your freedom to have an opinion and express. If you cannot see the relation between downvotes and the first amendment then I can simply disagree with you, but not downvote you for how you see things.
peterwwillis 12y ago
It already works that way (or at least, that's how downvote is supposed to be used). In terms of comment quality, there is no way to distinguish that; you can only determine positivity, not quality. And there already exists the feedback loop problem where a seemingly-high-quality comment (higher up in the stack, or made by a popular person) is more likely to be upvoted; a visual emphasis would just exacerbate this behavior.

lazyant 12y ago

agree: 'upvote' or 'flag' and if you click 'flag' you have to choose an option like 'insulting' 'revealing personal info' etc

jonalmeida 12y ago
This goes well with my idea of providing comments on why you downvoted to give the author context. It's somewhere down here.

minimaxir 12y ago

High-quality comments rank higher, so they're the first read and no signal is needed to differentiate them. You can flag comments by clicking the direct link to a comment too.

rokhayakebe 12y ago

J, I cannot express how much I agree with you. The base logic in downvoting is so flawed it baffles me. How can you take away something from someone if you did not give it to them in the first place. Downvoting, especially without commenting, is exactly what the First Amendment was established for.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
DanBC 12y ago
Jesus fucking christ the first amendment has nothing to do with downvotes on HN. I would much rather have people downvoting comments they hate than have to read through tiresome boring arguments about stuff hat has been endlessly argued about in the past.
- rokhayakebe 12y ago
  Your perspective is narrow, but I respect your freedom to have an opinion and express. If you cannot see the relation between downvotes and the first amendment then I can simply disagree with you, but not downvote you for how you see things.

peterwwillis 12y ago

It already works that way (or at least, that's how downvote is supposed to be used). In terms of comment quality, there is no way to distinguish that; you can only determine positivity, not quality. And there already exists the feedback loop problem where a seemingly-high-quality comment (higher up in the stack, or made by a popular person) is more likely to be upvoted; a visual emphasis would just exacerbate this behavior.