I'm always tempted to downvote people who edit their comments, complaining about downvotes or demanding explanations.
You'll see this behavior occasionally on any "gamified" discussion forum. But HN culture is the most extreme about this, you see it in every other thread.
* People downvote grammar-nitpicks, and "Actuallllly..."-style smarmy corrections that are more about making the speaker feel superior than genuinely helping the recipient.
* They downvote criticisms of programming languages that are currently popular here.
* They downvote libertarian political views in threads where the liberals are dominant, and then paradoxically they downvote liberal views in the next thread where the libertarians are dominating. Human nature just like a winner.
* They downvote low-quality additions such as, "This!".
* They will almost certainly downvote this comment, because it's negative in tone and speaks to HN culture, which generally doesn't go over well.
Gamification of conversation can be harmful to your mental well-being. None of these "imaginary Internet points" mean anything. Try not to troll. Otherwise, just speak your truth and take any downvotes like an adult.
The problem is downvotes mean different things to different people. IMO a point based system for comments particularly one with downvoting is a sort of an aggressive one that may steer certain folks away when really good community shouldn't. It might even create a bad culture and attract hyper aggressive and deter more passive folks. There are other gamification systems that don't allow downvotes (e.g. Quora) which I think are better.
When I have been downvoted in the past for opinion things I'm immediately concerned that I have offended someone. It actually is painful not to know... did I say something factually wrong... is my comment being misinterpreted... am I coming off as offensive?
I'm sorry I'm not an "adult" but I need explanation as to why a comment is incorrect or why you might disagree otherwise I'm not going to sugar coat... it doesn't feel good to be downvoted and I'm sure others feel the same.
> I'm always tempted to downvote people who edit their comments, complaining about downvotes or demanding explanations.
Normally that happens because complaining about downvotes is in the guidelines. "Please resist commenting about being downvoted. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading." Personally I don't feel the need to police it, but the guidelines are clear.
> * They will almost certainly downvote this comment
Also in the guidelines: "Please don't bait other users by inviting them to downvote you or proclaim that you expect to get downvoted." You may get downvoted for ignoring the guidelines, rather than because of the negativity or speaking to culture.
> Gamification of conversation can be harmful to your mental well-being.
This is an interesting thought! I'd tend to agree, though I just stared to wonder if getting myself into arguments on Internet forums are the primary factor, and the gamification is secondary. Either way, my first thought is why participate in the gaming part if it's bad? I've never downvoted on HN yet, in part because getting downvotes makes me feel bad, so I don't like to inflict that on others. In part because they're unnecessary, I can upvote the things I like to make them bubble up, and I can use the [-] button to ignore threads I don't like. Anyway, "try not to troll" I agree with wholeheartedly, that's the main thing I learned during the period that I didn't have downvote privilege, and I imagine that was the intent.
That's why I made sure not to complain. I wasn't particularly angry, mostly just wondering what motivated people to downvote and expanding on my original comment based on the assumption that people actually disagreed or weren't aware of how decimal points work in different languages.
You'll see this behavior occasionally on any "gamified" discussion forum. But HN culture is the most extreme about this, you see it in every other thread.
* People downvote grammar-nitpicks, and "Actuallllly..."-style smarmy corrections that are more about making the speaker feel superior than genuinely helping the recipient.
* They downvote criticisms of programming languages that are currently popular here.
* They downvote libertarian political views in threads where the liberals are dominant, and then paradoxically they downvote liberal views in the next thread where the libertarians are dominating. Human nature just like a winner.
* They downvote low-quality additions such as, "This!".
* They will almost certainly downvote this comment, because it's negative in tone and speaks to HN culture, which generally doesn't go over well.
Gamification of conversation can be harmful to your mental well-being. None of these "imaginary Internet points" mean anything. Try not to troll. Otherwise, just speak your truth and take any downvotes like an adult.