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Yep. I have been truly baffled more than once by a downvote on a comment. The first time it happened I made the mistake of asking why... and that one got downvo

• krapp 12y ago
  Of course, questioning and complaining about downvotes is considered a downvotable offense here, since doing so doesn't contribute to the intellectual quality of the conversation. So that behavior is kind of encouraged in a way. Strange that the effect of downvoting itself isn't also considered a form of noise. I don't know whether requiring comments for downvotes would help though - presumably if someone were willing or able to articulate the reason for their disagreement they would have done so. The last thing we need is for downvotes to be accompanied by threads full "idiot" and "shill," etc.
  • jack-r-abbit 12y ago
    Questioning a downvote in an attempt to learn should not be downvoted... as it does contribute to the overall intellectual quality of the site. There are some very clear reasons for some comments to get downvoted. But some comments get downvotes for no obvious reason. Complaining about them is not helpful. I don't think requiring a comment to downvote would work either. Of course if people did comment things like "idiot" and "shill", then those comments would rightly be downvoted for name-calling and personal attacks. That would just be a mess.