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Ask HN: Anyone else miss not having a downvote button?

by AndrewMoffat on 7/18/11, 8:43 PM with 26 comments

I recently broke the karma threshold to get the downvote link on comments. I'm finding myself not only not using it, but feeling slightly burdened by even having it, in that I now read comments, I find myself thinking (if only in the back of my mind) "is this something I should downvote?"

It's a small nitpick, and I think it's cool that downvotes are delayed from new users to prevent abuse, but not having the option to downvote for so long (~1 year) has me beginning to think that doing away with all downvotes altogether isn't necessarily a bad thing. Anyone else agree?

  • by mike-cardwell on 7/18/11, 9:08 PM

    Stick this in a GreaseMonkey script and watch the downvote buttons disappear:

      var a=document.getElementsByTagName('a');
  for(var i in a){
    if(a[i].href &&
      a[i].href.match(/^http:\/\/news\.ycombinator\.com\/vote\?for=\d+&dir=down/))
      a[i].style.display='none'
  }

  • by ctdonath on 7/18/11, 9:19 PM

    If nothing else, we need a way to downvote posts which are objectively wrong.

    Nothing wrong with having an earned downvote if you in fact think somber thoughts about using it.

    I could perhaps support a change to earning each downvote, further encouraging contemplation ("do I really want to burn a downvote on _this_?").

  • by da5e on 7/18/11, 9:06 PM

    I've noticed that there is no downvoting allowed on comments on your own submissions. I think that's a good idea. I think downvoting is important. I'd like to see when a comment has been downvoted. I also miss the karma points being shown. More indicators like that create a richer, more Minority Report feel for reading HN.

  • by r00fus on 7/18/11, 9:31 PM

    I also rarely downvote.

    It's a pain on the iPad when the buttons are so small, I feel nervous unless I pinch-zoom the button to be really large... I have inadvertently downvoted when I meant to upvote on numerous occasions.

    Consequently, I simply don't rate while reading HN in bed.

    It would be nice to have an opt-out just like hiding dead.

  • by smokestack on 7/18/11, 8:57 PM

    I guess it could be seen as an "extra vote" for HN veterans, by separating good and bad content a little further apart. I haven't really seen it being abused.

    I'd really like to see downvotes removed altogether, while assigning extra weight to upvotes proportional to the voter's karma.

  • by kstenerud on 7/18/11, 8:48 PM

    I haven't accumulated enough frequent flyer points to downvote yet. Not sure (and don't really care) how many I need, but when I do get it in a year or two, I doubt I'd downvote anything except obvious trolls.

  • by code_duck on 7/18/11, 10:03 PM

    It seems some people downvote that with which they disagree, others downvote for spelling errors. I try to reserve it for blatant abuse.

  • by dpcan on 7/18/11, 9:43 PM

    Don't use it.

    But when the opportunity presents itself, you will KNOW that it's time to use it.

  • by sixtofour on 7/18/11, 10:28 PM

    "is this something I should downvote?"

    Just tell yourself to be very stingy with downvotes. Then only the most egregious posts will call attention to themselves.

    Be stingy.

  • by arkitaip on 7/19/11, 3:06 AM

    I'm pretty cautious when it comes to downvoting. A comment would have to factually incorrect, FUD, abusive or utterly pointless and stupid for me to downvote it. If in doubt, I just leave the comment be to the mercy of other HN'ers. Another option is to upvote a child comment so there's more balance in the discussion.

  • by namank on 7/27/11, 10:54 PM

    I feel downvotes are cool as long as they don't affect a post's popularity and are only used to as a tool for teaching posters about this forum's tacit rules.

    After that you can (maybe) pose a filter on something that has >10 downvotes. 1-3 downvotes should not affect a post(er)'s credibility.

  • by daimyoyo on 7/19/11, 1:56 AM

    IMHO downvotes are a weapon of last resort. I rarely downvote anything unless it's something I genuinely think adds nothing to the conversation on the thread(as an aside, I don't downvote dissenting opinions as long as they're presented intelligently), or is inflammatory.

  • by Swannie on 7/19/11, 9:56 AM

    I try and reserve down votes for abuse, blatant trolling, etc.

    Sometimes I find it hard not to down vote on objective things. Especially when the poster has completely missed the point and is getting carried away - potentially they trolling, but not doing it very well! :-)

  • by impendia on 7/19/11, 2:52 AM

    I have at times made inflammatory, sarcastic comments on topics about which I knew little, and then gotten downvoted for it.

    It was annoying, and it pissed me off a little at the time, but in retrospect I deserved it.