

Ask HN: Downvoting etiquette - sshumaker

What is the etiquette with regards to downvoting?  Although I haven't accumulated sufficient karma to downvote, I always thought that you should upvote posts you agree with,  respond to reasonably argued posts you disagree with, and only downvote content that actually doesn't contribute to the discussion.<p>Is there some other standard people use?<p>(Yes, I'm asking because I received my first downvote today, in this thread - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1207721 - where my post, while contrarian, did seem like it was part of the discussion).
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tokenadult
For a contrary (but perhaps former) view of the site founder, see

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171>

"I think it's ok to use the up and down arrows to express agreement. Obviously
the uparrows aren't only for applauding politeness, so it seems reasonable
that the downarrows aren't only for booing rudeness.

"It only becomes abuse when people resort to karma bombing: downvoting a lot
of comments by one user without reading them in order to subtract maximum
karma. Fortunately we now have several levels of software to protect against
that."

A few months ago, the site founder, pg, asked about whether implementing more
flagging options for marking comments would help make more clear what the
community thinks of various comments.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1006589>

There was some interesting discussion in that thread. On my part, I will just
try to follow the local cultural rules and do what I can to contribute
interesting content to the site, and to discourage postings that don't
contribute to the site. I am just one participant among thousands here, and I
don't get to set any of the rules.

I will ask an informational question here. You wrote, "I always thought that
you should upvote posts you agree with," but that is not parallel to your idea
"only downvote content that actually doesn't contribute to the discussion." In
other words, is it possible that some kinds of content deserve upvotes even if
you don't agree with it? And, on the other hand, is it possible that we all
should downvote certain comments whether or not we agree with them? But let me
emphasize the positive, as I have attempted to do before,

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1065084>

and ask everyone reading this thread, "What Kinds of Comments Should Be
Upvoted?" What comments are good comments, and contribute to the discussion
even if you don't agree with them? I like comments that add new verifiable
information to the discussion, even if they force me to change my mind.

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machrider
No, people shouldn't be downvoting comments just because they disagree with
you. However, if you say something that goes against the grain, you're going
to get downvoted every now and then anyway. It helps to develop a thick skin,
or better yet, try to ignore comment scores altogether.

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telemachos
My experience tells me that (1) people certainly _do_ downvote simply for
disagreement and (2) it's simply not much worth worrying about.

The Guidelines seems to me to get it just right (see link in the site's
footer):

>> Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it
makes boring reading.

