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Hacker News Guidelines

(news.ycombinator.com)
446 points tonmoy | 4 comments | 24 Aug 23 16:25 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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Pannoniae ◴[24 Aug 23 17:30 UTC] No.37251926[source]▶
There's really one thing missing from the guidelines IMO - "don't downvote for disagreement, downvote for offtopic/flamebait/inappropriate comment".

Well, this should be obvious, but it sadly isn't...

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1. em-bee ◴[24 Aug 23 17:34 UTC] No.37251993[source]▶
according to others downvote for disagreement is appropriate.

offtopic/flamebait/inappropriate comments should probably be flagged.

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2. Pannoniae ◴[24 Aug 23 18:01 UTC] No.37252404[source]▶
I think it really conflicts with the "optimise for curiosity" aspect of the site. Downvoting comments for disagreement does not help curiosity, as it just downranks insightful yet unpopular opinions, which obviously does not help encourage curiosity. The real offtopic/flamebait comments get flagged anyway, so downvotes aren't needed to keep the site functional and interesting.

(last sentence was slightly edited for clarity)

3. sanderjd ◴[24 Aug 23 18:06 UTC] No.37252468[source]▶
I think there is a category past those that is a much more appropriate for flagging. Something like: abusive / hostile / grossly inappropriate. I think people on HN do a great job of flagging these, but it's weird that the same mechanism would be the best choice for something that is merely off-topic.
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4. em-bee ◴[24 Aug 23 19:13 UTC] No.37253288[source]▶
good point. i did feel a bit of unease making that suggestion myself, like how bad does a comment really have to be before it is ok to call it to the attention of moderators? i guess i was reading much more into those terms that i should have. there is a category of maybe boring offtopic/ potential flamebait/ mildly inappropriate where it is possible to just ignore it or talk it out.