Re:I Downvoted Because
by names_are_hard on Wednesday January 13, 2021 @11:49AM
(#25764582)
> other than negative feelings it might cause and the times it leads to destructive responses rather than constructive responses.
Well there are two good reasons, maybe they're good enough?
Agreed, and they’ve been good enough so far for me. Its just that I’ve come to recognize there are cases when downvotes are appropriate, and won’t lead to escalation, as well as cases where downvotes send the right signal and lead to overall constructive behavior. The downvotes I’ve received have helped me introspect and learn. Even if my immediate reaction wasn’t constructive, it has helped me become more constructive in the long run. I think I’ve seen this happen with others here. Without downvotes feeling harsh, I might not have worked as hard to see the positive in other comments and to say the positive in my own.
But - lately I’ve been second guessing myself and wondering whether there’s any virtue in continuing to not use this feature, which is sometimes useful. There are a minority of comments that should be downvoted and I agree with downvotes they receive even if I don’t hand any out.
One reason I’ve been questioning my personal policy is because I’ve recognized that - in the spirit of the article here - that downvotes on HN are given for a wide variety of legitimate reasons that don’t necessarily amount to disagreement. Sometimes comments are very off-topic, sometimes they make assumptions, sometimes they’re polite and nice but factually wrong, sometimes they’re jokes that aren’t funny. I’ve started to view downvotes as being symmetric to upvotes, and I give upvotes liberally and for a huge number of reasons. There’s nothing really wrong with downvotes being seen in the same light... other than negative feelings it might cause and the times it leads to destructive responses rather than constructive responses.
I’d love to hear what others thing, should I start using downvotes now, or continue to abstain?