

Ask HN: Down Voting Etiquette - WoodenChair

What is the etiquette regarding down voting on Hacker News?  Is there an official policy?  When is it appropriate, and when is it stifling speech?
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DanBC
Personally: i downvote rude comments; insults; throwaway jokes and throwaway
comments.

I try to ignore people I think are trolling.

I try hard to not downvote for disagreement but I sometimes do downvotes for
disagreement.

Please do feel free to stiffle speech. Voting is not used nearly enough on HN.
Vote early, vote often.

If I get a single down vote I try to understand my post, but I remember that
fat finger votes are easy especially on mobile. If I get multie downvotes I
might include additional information under a clearly marked edit, or a follow
up post to clarify and expand my position.

I'm not good with words and I often write things I don't quite mean.

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gus_massa
A personal preference: Don’t downvote comments that are already grey, unless
they are very offensive.

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thekevan
If you are talking about voting on comments specifically, PG recently touched
on that a bit here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7445761](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7445761)

