
Ask HN: Is it fair game to downvote someone's comments indiscriminately? - pondekawna
I have noticed comments on another HN account being consistently downvoted, once or twice, about 24 hours after they were posted, regardless of the comments&#x27; content and the subject matter of the OP. This has been going on for several months.<p>There may be a number of reasons someone or some group of people would employ this tactic, but is it &quot;fair game&quot; with respect to HN&#x27;s policies and the sensibilities of HN&#x27;s readership?
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jere
I've noticed the same thing on reddit for as long as I can remember. Obscure
comments that are polite, useful, and avoid controversial topics routinely get
down to 0 or -1 points.

I know this is all rather meaningless, but something about it is very
upsetting to me and I always upvote such comments.

On that note, I like the Stack Overflow model: you have to pay reputation to
downvote.

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brudgers
StackOverflow actively deletes content and does so without mercy. That's a
more important part of the utility of its model than the mechanics of
downvotes. And flagging costs nothing except a daily flag, and the reward for
good flags is more flags.

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benologist
You can always write dang at hn@ycombinator.com when you spot stuff that might
be circumventing the rules.

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pen2l
What if it actually is dang/HN that's responsible for these downvotes? I think
the downvoting is a new version of "rankbanning" mechanism. Users that are
anti-immigration reform are rankbanned on HN (this means that no matter the
number of votes on the post, their comments fall down in the page. Users like
eli_gottlieb, larrys, etc. are rankbanned for these various reasons; some
people detected this and called HN on it, and I think their response is to
make a new system which auto-downvotes users... then it makes it seem like
their comments are organically falling down the page, rather than being
targeted by rankbans.)

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xtrumanx
Got a link to the call-out regarding the rankbanning? I've never heard of that
happening.

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TheLoneWolfling
[https://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2013/11/03/heres-why-
pa...](https://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2013/11/03/heres-why-paul-graham-
probably-owes-me-an-apology/)

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jkoudys
Rampant, indiscriminate downvoting is one of the main reasons I generally
dislike reddit and prefer HN. There's a natural decline to subs over there, as
anything or anyone who deviates from mainstream opinions gets downvoted into
obscurity.

I'm just a casual reader, and I have no expertise on HN's policies, but it
definitely offends my sensibilities to see anyone gaming this system.

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DanBC
HN should have built in mechanisms that prevent downvote sprees.

May I ask whatthe username is? (Feel free to email me if you don't want to
make it public).

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krapp
As far as I know, HN's only policy regarding downvotes is that you shouldn't
complain about them when you get them.

Although what you describe might expose some flaw in their brigade/voting ring
detector, the site and the culture appear to be far more concerned with
stopping indiscriminate upvotes than downvotes (which is understandable, given
the financial incentives for startups and entrepreneurs to want to game the
system.) With downvotes, the more the merrier.

Edit: reading this thread, i'm wondering whether being able to delete posts
after they've been replied to isn't a bigger problem than downvoting. That and
drive-by edits.

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jqm
One approach if you notice this (aside from contacting mods of course) is to
up-vote the comments...

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StopGamingHN
Lots of nerd jealousy exhibits itself via downvoting. I'm sure it's based on
insiders and outsiders. I'm also sure many try to repress ideas that might be
competitive to their own. I've seen this happen and this is repulsive. Change
needs to happen on HN.

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tremols
You will be punished if you criticize communism and angular.js among other
subjects where political correctness and idiotical consensus have more weight
than reason. The kool kidz rule with an iron fist, and they know no mercy.

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krapp
The thing is, despite what many people here seem to think, HN doesn't really
have a consensus. If it did, it wouldn't be as paranoid about the Eternal
September effect as it is, as one of the symptoms of Eternal September is
users not agreeing with and following the consensus set by older members.

What HN does have is a number of mutually opposed consensuses each believing
the others are destroying the site by astroturfing and posting irrelevant
nonsense. So yes, if you criticize angular.js and communism, you might be
punished. But if you criticize capitalism and praise front-end frameworks,
someone else will have their knives out for that as well.

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whybroke
You do realize that you're trying to provide a calm, reasonable explanation to
a party who believes HN is plagued by communists.

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fixxer
Does karma play a part in the YC selection process?

Restated: who cares?

If any prospective hire told me their handle under the notion that karma
indicates anything useful, I'd show them the door.

EDIT: Exactly.

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jakejake
I'd be surprised if it was just to see one's karma points. Reading the actual
comments would be more useful.

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fixxer
Yeah, sure. I'm in Illinois, so I can discriminate based on political
ideology... totally valuable.

EDIT: My point is this can be a bad idea.

