
Ask HN: Is someone down-voting all my comments because they don't like me? - throwaway98237
Perhaps a good feature to add to HN would be some check on down-voting that watches out for when a single person down-votes another persons comments in mass in a short period of time, or on a sustained basis. Revenge down-voting, that is.
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gknoy
I was under the impression that voting rings and whatnot are already something
that dang and the other mods watch out for; we as users don't need to see who
downvotes us. If we could see identifiable information about downvotes, it
would be too tempting to downvote THEM out of revenge.

I don't think I would do such a thing, but I don't even want to have such
knowledge color my reading of future comments. Part of the intention of HN is
that we read and vote on comments for their merits and contribution to a
discussion -- even if we don't always agree with the author -- and I would not
want to discount someone's writing just because they downvoted something I
wrote.

Maybe if there were a one-way hash of usernames we could see for who
downvotes, we could have public insight into the insight of voter rings ("____
has downvoted my comments 3000% more than anyone else ...") without the chance
of contaminating our perception of others' discourse, but I doubt that we have
better info than the mods already have about posters.

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NumberCruncher
Why do you care at all? Seneca said that if you publish something you have to
bear the critics.

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spoiledtechie
they are talking about revenge downvoting. Not just a critic. But a critic
that down votes one person..

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NumberCruncher
\- Revenge downvoting is childish. Caring about it is too.

\- There is no real difference, only in your head.

Pick the answer that makes you feel better.

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Taylor_OD
This seems to be an issue with any type of site. I had a similar problem with
Reddit. I found that eventually people lose interest. At the end of the day
losing internet points isnt the end of the world.

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surething
… would the overall "economics" of HN make sense if a down-vote cost 1 point
of reputation, or some fraction thereof?

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kisna72
Suggestion: create a new profile and test if downvoting happens due to you or
the article you post?

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vorotato
What if all of your comments are terrible? I mean I'm not saying they are, but
if your comments are regularly not very productive you'll see down voting but
there's no individual actor doing it.

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jshevek
>. when a single person down-votes another persons comments in mass in a short
period of time, or on a sustained basis. Revenge down-voting, that is.

You are assuming a person's motives based only on behavior.

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yread
I had an opposite problem once, somebody was blindly upvoting my silly
comments. Luckily, it didn't last long so I didn't have to post an Ask HN

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savethefuture
Sounds as if you have alternative motives to know who down-votes you.

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mixmastamyk
Don't have proof but I believe there is a limit to how many times you can
up/downvote each account.

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notacoward
In a very rare exception to Betteridge's Law, I'd say the answer to your
question is probably yes. The more interesting question is how long they'll be
able to get away with it. As others point out, the mods already try to detect
and prevent abuse of the upvote/downvote mechanisms. OTOH it's not clear how
well automated that process is, or how effective their efforts are. It
certainly seems to me that coordinated upvoting and downvoting are still
pretty much par for the course on this and any other similar site.

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Vanit
I wonder if it's because of your username?

