The reason for an upvote is pretty obvious. The upvoted author usually explained his point.
But what is the meaning for a downvote? This info could be very valuable.
For example, today I posted this:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11361031
What do I learn from the downvotes it got? That my post was too unfriendly? That the facts are wrong? That people disagree in some other way?
I would really like to know.
You have that little triangle, but I don't think it really upvotes.
For example, this post has 5 points but is not on the ASK page. While older posts with just 3 points are. Probably because it is "upvoted" mainly by "little guys".
As I understand it, clicking the triangle only means "put this in my saved stories list" unless you somehow secretly become a real upvoter.
I think we all are still waiting for a community with transparent rules. So far, none has managed to get a lot of traction.
I think downvote should only be a reply, but, of course, you can guess who downvoted you... which is fine as hackers should not be cowards!
Remember, you are not your down votes. Or your up votes. Share the things you'd like to share. Hopefully, someone will appreciate it (whether they vote or not). Say the things you'd like to say. Be nice to people.
Why can't I use the downvote button? It either must be available to everyone, or not available at all.
And if you, HN founders, are afraid that newcomers can be smarter than you, then remove the ability to downvote altogether. Whoever dislikes a post, can just ignore it.
P.S. The entire user rating system here contradicts the resource name. Hackers do not believe in karma.
Downvoting is available to anyone who has 500 karma points or more and is not for the selected few. That ability has to be earned so to speak..
It seems that in order to "earn" that "ability" one has to praise Lisp, Rust and Haskell and publicly hate JS. Isn't that mass conciousness manipulation?
The selected few or a crowd thinking the same thought - what's the actual difference? The only difference is that in the second case all fresh and independent ideas get downvoted much faster.
Any karma-based resource suffers from this plague.
Ochlocracy at its worst.
If something has had enough downvotes to go invisible it's nearly always because offensive, smartass, or spam.
The problem with downvote for everyone, including sock puppet accounts, is it becomes Reddit: "I disagree, have a downvote"
Why does someone has more right than me to decide what's offensive, smartass or spam? Either leave that to the administration, or give that to everyone.
> The problem with downvote for everyone, including sock puppet accounts, is it becomes Reddit: "I disagree, have a downvote"
YMMV but I'm experiencing absolutely the same here.
Btw, when I agree, I upvote. Why can't I downvote when I disagree?
