I get downvoted a lot (more lately for some reason). And I'm mostly fine with it. I have over 12,000 karma, so a few downvotes aren't going to impact the site functionality for me at all.
But I noticed today that getting downvoted when I don't know why I got downvoted actually makes me feel a mild form of panic. It's like my subsconsicous is perceiving some sort of unknown threat, and so I actually get anxiety.
If I didn't violate any HN guideline, I only have a couple conclusions for the downvote. One, somebody just dislikes what I said and wants to disagree via downvote. Two, somebody doesn't like me personally and wants to punish me. Three, they just don't think my comment was constructive. After that, I'm grasping at straws.
Does anyone else feel poorly when they get downvoted and they don't know why? Do you have any suggestions for how to deal with this?
Since I don’t much know the value of HN points I don’t much care yet. I might be okay with hiding them altogether, except they are a useful indicator about an active discussion.