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446 points tonmoy | 1 comments | 24 Aug 23 16:25 UTC | HN request time: 0.203s | source
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yjftsjthsd-h ◴[24 Aug 23 17:09 UTC] No.37251581[source]▶
The one thing I wish was added - either in the guidelines or as a change to the actual web UI - was replying to a comment that you're downvoting; it's frustrating both to have one's own comments downvoted without explanation, and to come across a comment that's grey without obvious reason (Was it factually incorrect? Endorsing an unpopular idea? It's not always obvious).

(I'm not saying HN should do exactly the same thing, but one example is Slashdot's system where a comment can get downvoted in a way that tags it specifically as trolling/offtopic/whatever - https://slashdot.org/faq/mod-metamod.shtml seems to describe it alright)

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mschuster91 ◴[24 Aug 23 18:02 UTC] No.37252423[source]▶
> it's frustrating both to have one's own comments downvoted without explanation, and to come across a comment that's grey without obvious reason (Was it factually incorrect? Endorsing an unpopular idea? It's not always obvious).

Personally, I don't downvote anything unless it's either complete and utter bullshit (e.g. someone acting like PHP is bad based on arguments barely valid in the end of the PHP5 era), or it is plain and simple far-right/conspiratorial in nature. It used to be the case that this was how most people used the downvote feature.

Nowadays? Seems like the tide has shifted, and even completely legitimate viewpoints (not just on politics threads) get downvotes for unexplainable reasons. It saddens me a bit.

> I'm not saying HN should do exactly the same thing, but one example is Slashdot's system where a comment can get downvoted in a way that tags it specifically as trolling/offtopic/whatever

Such a thing exists. You have to open the comment's dedicated page by clicking on the timestamp; if you're over 500-1k karma you can then flag it. Enough flags auto-kill comments and they only appear for those who have "showdead" enabled.

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kergonath ◴[24 Aug 23 18:19 UTC] No.37252631[source]▶
> Nowadays? Seems like the tide has shifted, and even completely legitimate viewpoints (not just on politics threads) get downvotes for unexplainable reasons. It saddens me a bit.

Dead posts are far from the majority here, and the vast majority are dead for a very good reason.

Grey posts just mean that some people disagree, but it does not really say much about the post itself. It might be that the tone was wrong, or the poster was being an arse. It does not prevent people reading it, and it does not prevent discussions about it. Grey posts are not a sign of persecution or a cabal against you, it’s just that it rubbed some people the wrong way.

You are interacting with a whole lot of people here. Some of them will have had a bad day or just be irrational. You don’t need many of these to get a net negative vote count. It does not really matter.

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1. mschuster91 ◴[24 Aug 23 20:27 UTC] No.37254117[source]▶
> Grey posts just mean that some people disagree, but it does not really say much about the post itself. It might be that the tone was wrong, or the poster was being an arse. It does not prevent people reading it, and it does not prevent discussions about it. Grey posts are not a sign of persecution or a cabal against you, it’s just that it rubbed some people the wrong way.

Which is a good point, but nevertheless I think that if one disagrees with a post (excluding the post breaking site guidelines), it is good culture to explain to the poster why one has done so.