

Ask HN: comment downvote sniping - kls

Has anyone ever experienced their comments being down-voted in a systematic fashion. I just checked my threads link to look to see if anyone has responded to any of my comments and responses to comments, when I noticed that a bunch of my post's have been down-voted for no apparent reason. They are not controversial posts at all, and most of them are just friendly advice. Has anyone else had this happen to them? I am not really worried about the karma but it's a pretty uncool thing to do to someone who tries hard to contribute to the forum, if it is indeed someone sniping comments of people that they disagree with. Just thought I would see if it is happening to other people because this is the second time I have noticed the pattern on my comments.
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lucisferre
I've seen this is a problem on Reddit, though I've never really noticed it
myself. Someone decides the dislike or disagree with you enough, or perhaps
they were just pissed off with the way you responded to them and they go
through your history down-voting everything they can.

I'm just curious can you even down/up-vote old comments. Seems like they
should lock after a few days to prevent this sort of behaviour.

~~~
kls
To my knowledge comments do not lock, I know that I can go back several pages
in my history and upvote responses to my comments. You cannot downvote
responses to your comment's so I don't know if downvote get's disables at a
certain point.

Edit: According to brudgers comment downvoting does lock after a few days. He
has a comment below on it.

~~~
kls
For those seeing this thread for the first time, the above comment was down-
voted shortly after I posted it, another HN member must have up-voted and I
think that is testament to the great nature of HN. But I request that if
anyone sees my comments down-voted either in this thread or in my history
please do not up-vote them. I did not post this to rectify my karma, but
rather I am genuinely interested in finding out if this is an issue or if I
have somehow become trapped in some kind of automatic down-vote mechanism
(Though that would not explain post from several days ago all of the sudden
dropping to 0) but I am more interested in finding out if this is a real issue
(comment sniping) than I am about a few points of Karma. In saying that I do
appreciate the effort to help.

~~~
tstegart
Karma does not get rectified, it gets balanced. So don't worry. If there is
someone down-voting your comments out of spite, karma will get them, and you
will find joy and unexpected abundance when you least expect it.

~~~
samstave
This should be printed on a piece of paper and put into a baked pastry.

------
brudgers
Though sometimes downvotes are used to express disagreement, downvotes should
be considered editorial feedback - either you didn't make your point clearly,
or your comment is considered likely to derail the discussion.

Use the "edit" and "delete" links, respectively if you are concerned about the
karma score of a particular comment.

It is bad form on HN to complain about downvotes.

~~~
kls
I did not think I was complaining about them, I just noticed that several of
them drooped to 0 all at once. This has happened to me twice so it seemed like
their may have been a pattern which is why I asked if other people had
experienced it. It does not usually happen to my comments so it was out of the
norm, especially given that some conversations have seen no action in the past
few days. It could very well be coincidental, which is why I asked. If it
conveyed as me complaining about being down-voted then I apologize it was not
my intent.

~~~
brudgers
Going to zero is always more likely with one point comments than with those
deemed worthy of an upvote.

~~~
kls
Sure but I had 5 or 6 of them drop in the course of a few seconds. If I posted
them in a row then I would assume that I am just having a bad day and not
contributing value. But these are spread out among post that have died off,
which seemed strange to me, many have sat for a few days with no activity and
then they all dropped in a short period of time. It very well could be
coincidence I don't rule that out. Which is why I asked if other people have
seen the pattern.

------
adrianwaj
I wonder if data is kept to check who is downvoting what. Then pg could tell
you.

------
anamax
> They are not controversial posts at all, and most of them are just friendly
> advice. Has anyone else had this happen to them?

If you think that this is dick behavior, why do you care?

~~~
kls
It is more of a curiosity as to whether this happens on HN. There is a
cultural norm on HN that I believe goes against such behavior, so I was
curious if it is actually happening, given that this is the second time I have
seen this pattern. That being said, if it was truly happening and became
widespread, I would consider leaving HN, which is why I am so concerned about
it. One of the reasons I came to HN was the reduced amount of such activity.
Please don't take that as a threat to take my ball and go home, it is not
meant as that, rather I am just stating my values in a online community, and I
would take that as a signal that much of that value has died. Given the value
that HN has been I would hate to see such.

~~~
anamax
> That being said, if it was truly happening and became widespread, I would
> consider leaving HN, which is why I am so concerned about it.

Why? Karma points are meaningless.

Suppose that you thought that a lot of BMW drivers were jerks. Would that
affect your decision to buy a BMW?

~~~
kls
It is not the points, rather it may be an indicator of a trend among the
demographic of individuals. For example say I participated in a car club,
where all members where experts at vehicle technology and then over time said
BMW jerks took over more and more, the information would start to reflect
their preference (BMW tech) and thought process and at some point there will
be a event horizon where it seems like all car club members are jerks and all
information was being presented by jerks who think so little of opposing
viewpoint that they would disable your car, for something as petty as making a
point that maybe a particular Mercedes technology is superior. I personally
don't like information that is biased by ego. I am not saying that HN is close
to that, but it was not long ago that the thought of someone systematically
down-voting another member in HN would be unheard-of. My point was not that I
am on the cusp of leaving but rather I share the concern that with HN's growth
we have to be aware of possible decline in quality and discuss ways to ensure
the quality that HN provides.

~~~
anamax
> am not saying that HN is close to that, but it was not long ago that the
> thought of someone systematically down-voting another member in HN would be
> unheard-of.

Oh really? When was this time?

I ask because I saw it the first time I noticed points. Is that because I'm a
newbie?

> I share the concern that with HN's growth we have to be aware of possible
> decline in quality and discuss ways to ensure the quality that HN provides.

And the relationship between HN quality and "inappropriate downvoting" is?

~~~
kls
_I ask because I saw it the first time I noticed points. Is that because I'm a
newbie?_

I only noticed it twice and that is the reason I asked about the issue. It may
very well have happened before, that is what I was inquiring about, to
understand if it is widespread.

 _And the relationship between HN quality and "inappropriate downvoting" is?_

I think you are looking for something empirical which is not what I am basing
my view on this subject on. Rather I hold some core values and that is what I
am basing it on a value system as such it is internal to me. To me a
widespread demographic of people who downvote out of malice compromises that
value system, I would not want to participate in such a system. In saying
that, I am not saying that HN has come to that.

~~~
anamax
> Rather I hold some core values and that is what I am basing it on a value
> system as such it is internal to me.

And you're not going to tell us those "core values".

> To me a widespread demographic of people

What definition of "widespread" are you using? Would you say that an instance
of malicious downvoting almost every day would qualify?

HN probably has 5-10k regulars, so let's go with 5k. 1% of 5k is 50. If 1%
maliciously downvote 6 times a year, that's an incident almost every day.

I don't know about your "core values", but 1% doing something every other
month doesn't strike me as widespread.

~~~
kls
_And you're not going to tell us those "core values"._

I apologize I thought I was clear on it, I would not want to participate in a
forum with people that's conduct is below a conduce standard that I hold
myself to, If I felt that such conduct had reached a threshold of my tolerance
for such behavior.

 _I don't know about your "core values", but 1% doing something every other
month doesn't strike me as widespread._

I don't know if my case is even a true case of it or if it is widespread hence
me asking if other people have seen the pattern, therefore the exact value of
when it would send me over the edge is unknown. I do know that if it where
happening to me once a week or so, I would probably give serious consideration
to not participating in posting comments at the least. And I would also tend
to view contributed news as having the possibility of being posted by such
people that have little regard for the quality of the site.

