

Ask HN: force comments or attach username to downvotes? - pedalpete

I've only been down-voted twice (though maybe this post will increase that number ;)), and each time there was no comment left as to why I was down-voted.<p>HN is great not only for the links, but for the comments and discussions that surround the articles. Wouldn't forcing users to comment on a down-vote (or maybe just the first down-vote) improve the quality of communication?<p>I'm left wondering what the other side was/what was disagreed with, and i've got nothing, and no idea what that community members views are, etc. etc.
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brk
What happens when x people downvote the same comment? You have a string of at
least x replies that would likely be useless ("lame", "troll", etc.) Then
someone would be inclined to downvote those comments, etc.

The majority of my karma has come from comments instead of submissions. One of
my recent higher ranking comments ended up with 91 upvotes, but I know from
watching the thread that probably 2 or 3 people downvoted the comment. In the
end, why does it really matter? There are enough users here that comments and
submissions will gravitate towards the correct ranking. Comments that are
massively downvoted tend to have an obvious reason why, even if the reason is
_clear_ but not _rational_.

I don't think your solution solves any real problems, and inhibits peoples
ability to moderate comments in a low-effort manner.

I have seen several cases where a comment is left like "I down voted your
comment because..." In the other cases, forcing a comment would either add
more noise to the conversation, or discourage people from downvoting and cause
the comments to be falsely ranked.

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jgrahamc
My take (without wanting to seem harsh): get over being down voted a couple of
times and don't come up with a technical solution. It happens.

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tptacek
You are making the mistake of paying attention to your votes. Life is too
short. Who cares?

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ram1024
most of my downvotes are from me being deliberately inflammatory, so i
generally know why...

a few of them are wonderful mysteries though. fun!

~~~
MaysonL
_a few of them are wonderful mysteries though. fun!_

I can identify with that sentiment ;-) I'm still somewhat mystified by the
voting on this thread: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=249009>

