Hacker News Guidelines

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...

Historically, it has been explicitly okay to downvote for disagreement https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171

There was a time when downvoting someone was accompanied by an explanation of why the downvote had just happened, but I think that didn't live long.

Either way, after the divisive last few years I don't think that that many people care for downvotes anymore, i.e. for what "the other side" thinks.

Maybe you're talking about some other site, but I don't remember HN ever operating this way. Downvoting disagreement is one of the oldest norms on the site.

2010-2012, I’d say. Too lazy to search through the comments back then. I also remember when meta discussions/posts like this one were actively discouraged, I’d say that lasted for longer.

Slightly related to the topic of moderation and this forum, the people behind it should really do something about allowing users in here to delete their comments/past history. We’re only a doxxing event away from making the news (this forum was no better than Reddit when it came to the Boston bombing, as an example and talking about doxxing).