4 ms·
The trick to avoiding downvotes is avoid to commenting on touchy unpopular topics. What is touchy, well you will know that once you get a few downvotes. Such t
by onemask 11y ago
The trick to avoiding downvotes is avoid to commenting on touchy unpopular topics.
What is touchy, well you will know that once you get a few downvotes.
Such topics brooke no argument.
Well it has the intended effect of people self-censoring and ensuring homogeneous thinking within HN.
Many downvotes are just when people disagree with a view instead of the post not advancing the discussion.
Anytime I see a downvoted post, I upvote it unless it is really beyond the pale. I suggest those who don't like the irrational downvoting to do the same.
One solution to discourage downvoting for disagreeing is that that downvoting to take effect only after say 3 downvotes have accrued. That means atleast 3 people thought a post didn't advance the discussion.
PS : this is a throwaway, learnt from past experiences
- stesch 11y agoA few days ago I posted about some feature X a company was building for product Y of another company. One of the first comments was from someone who was excited that this feature was available or at least will be usable in foreseeable time. He got downvoted a gray fast. And one reply said in a very short form that there is no X for Y. I said to him that the title of the post was "X for Y" and got downvoted to -3 points. And why all this? Because 1 other person tricked people into thinking that the project was abandoned. Nobody checked if he was right. I myself apologized to the other readers. When I checked the project's mailing list I was surprised. The project was alive with the founder of the company helping users to download and install X. It's still in early development and a bit complicated. You need the right version of everything at this moment. And you need to have an account to access some parts of Y needed to compile. I asked the one who said the project is abandoned why he believes this despite an active mailing list. He made something up that wasn't topic in April or May on the mailing list. And said this was a sign of an abandoned project. Until then the whole post vanished from the front page and nobody cared anymore. Why should anybody care for the reasons you get downvoted when you can't change anything about if for most of the time?
- stephenr 11y agoComments that are factually correct and non-offensive are often down voted. Comment negatively about Google? Down vote. Comment negatively about the risks of building your business on the shifting sands of startup SaaS? Down vote. Ive never seen anyone manage to explain how it is logical to use the same action without any distinction, for any of the following, especially given the result for multiple down-votes is to effectively hide the comment from view: - "i disagree with this opinion" - "this is offtopic/unrelated" - "this is factually wrong" The "if more people upvoted, it wouldn't be a problem" excuse is not new, and as I've said elsewhere, it's a ridiculous bandaid solution to a widely acknowledged problem. If you need a pop culture reference, it's the Walter White solution: "our health care system is completely fucked, but this guy can make and sell illegal drugs to pay for treatment"
- totony 11y agoI believe you should "pay" 1 karma to downvote. That way, trigger-happy people will be less likely to use it for a slight disagreement.