4 ms·

Down voting is not for disagreeing, read the guidelines for HN. If you disagree, provide a comment as to why. Down voting is for completely irrelevant comments

by Ixiaus 12y ago

Down voting is not for disagreeing, read the guidelines for HN. If you disagree, provide a comment as to why. Down voting is for completely irrelevant comments, inappropriate comments, etc... [EDIT] To be clear, I did not downvote you and I disagree with the down votes on your comment here, even though it's off-topic it's important to acculturate people that are accustomed to "downvoting for disagreeing". Which is why I'm commenting.

pessimizer 12y ago
>Down voting is not for disagreeing, read the guidelines for HN. (citation needed)
- pessimizer 12y ago
  To be clearer (I guess.) There are no guidelines that say this that I am aware of, that I can locate, or have been cited by anyone. The guidelines only mention downvoting in the context of bitching about downvoting.
Fuzzwah 12y ago
Downvoting is for however the user wants to use it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171 > pg 2455 days ago | link | parent | flag > I think it's ok to use the up and down arrows to express agreement. Obviously the uparrows aren't only for applauding politeness, so it seems reasonable that the downarrows aren't only for booing rudeness. > It only becomes abuse when people resort to karma bombing: downvoting a lot of comments by one user without reading them in order to subtract maximum karma. Fortunately we now have several levels of software to protect against that.
- eclipxe 12y ago
  Thank you! HN is not Reddit, and I'm happy down vote can be used as a "I don't agree with you button".
- Ixiaus 12y ago
  In that case I stand corrected - I thought I remembered reading that in the guidelines. Downvotes instead of comments is still a personal peeve but I guess I can't chide people for it on HN, lol.
- saganus 12y ago
  What I have never understood about HN's use of the down vote as "I don't agree with you" is that it also changes the color of the post to one designed to be hard to read, so it's like imposing a kind of progressive silence. Why not just a change in color to something different, not harder to read? If down vote is to be used however the down voter wants then why attach the "punishing" color to it? It's an interesting system in that I have not seen it anywhere else and indeed does seem to work. But still I can't understand it.
bigtunacan 12y ago
I also did not down vote the poster; however I don't see anywhere in the guidelines that says down voting is not for disagreeing. Interestingly though the guidelines do explicitly state, "Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading." For anyone looking for the citation you can see the full (and quite short) guidelines here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

by Ixiaus 12y ago

pessimizer 12y ago

>Down voting is not for disagreeing, read the guidelines for HN. (citation needed)

pessimizer 12y ago
To be clearer (I guess.) There are no guidelines that say this that I am aware of, that I can locate, or have been cited by anyone. The guidelines only mention downvoting in the context of bitching about downvoting.

Fuzzwah 12y ago

Downvoting is for however the user wants to use it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171 > pg 2455 days ago | link | parent | flag > I think it's ok to use the up and down arrows to express agreement. Obviously the uparrows aren't only for applauding politeness, so it seems reasonable that the downarrows aren't only for booing rudeness. > It only becomes abuse when people resort to karma bombing: downvoting a lot of comments by one user without reading them in order to subtract maximum karma. Fortunately we now have several levels of software to protect against that.

eclipxe 12y ago
Thank you! HN is not Reddit, and I'm happy down vote can be used as a "I don't agree with you button".
Ixiaus 12y ago
In that case I stand corrected - I thought I remembered reading that in the guidelines. Downvotes instead of comments is still a personal peeve but I guess I can't chide people for it on HN, lol.
saganus 12y ago
What I have never understood about HN's use of the down vote as "I don't agree with you" is that it also changes the color of the post to one designed to be hard to read, so it's like imposing a kind of progressive silence. Why not just a change in color to something different, not harder to read? If down vote is to be used however the down voter wants then why attach the "punishing" color to it? It's an interesting system in that I have not seen it anywhere else and indeed does seem to work. But still I can't understand it.

bigtunacan 12y ago

I also did not down vote the poster; however I don't see anywhere in the guidelines that says down voting is not for disagreeing. Interestingly though the guidelines do explicitly state, "Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading." For anyone looking for the citation you can see the full (and quite short) guidelines here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html