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Hacker News Guidelines

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446 points tonmoy | 2 comments | 24 Aug 23 16:25 UTC | HN request time: 0.416s | 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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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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1. 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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2. 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.