https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html >"Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does an

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html >"Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. Please don't bait other users by inviting them to downmod you." After writing out the text of a comment, stop before you hit the "send" button, and honestly ask yourself the painfully tough question, "Does my comment actually contribute to the discussion?" "Have I asked a good question?" (where "good" means not easily answered with a bit of effort or a search engine). "Have a provided a good answer?" (where "good" means not easily answered with a bit of effort or a search engine). "Am I a well studied expert with lots of experience in this specific field such that others on HN will appreciate my personal opinions or anecdotes?" "Did I add some additional insight or reference?" "Did I include links to external resources?" And the most difficult of all, "Did I remember to be civil?" It's surprising and humbling to realize but in nearly all cases, my personal opinion fails to matter and is actually just noise. Even a comment that just says "Thanks!" fails to add much besides noise to the discussion and everyone is better off if you just silently use the up-vote button to show your appreciation. Though I personally can't bring myself to down-vote the mostly useless "Thanks!" comments, I did down-vote your comment for complaining about down-votes and for essentially baiting for votes. Since you're new here, and you asked for an explanation for the down-votes you've received, I've given you the best explanation I can muster. I hope it helps.