https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7605973
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7619287
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7611148
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7608102
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7642127
You'll notice that I've written a lot about the community practice of corrective upvotes, which is the best antidote to unfairly faded-out comments. This practice works most of the time. For example, the comment score you're complaining about was corrected hours ago. Corrective upvotes work because few such comments go far into negative territory. They're the best solution because they fix most of these problems silently.
The reason the guidelines ask you not to post complaints about downvoting is that those, by contrast, stick around forever, worsening the threads.
I am well aware of your position, and I do try to correct comments that I feel were unfairly down-voted. However, I dont like this solution at all.
> For example, the comment score you're complaining about was corrected hours ago.
I had upvoted it to compensate for the downvote myself. If this was a single instance I would have moved on. I am seeing this too frequently and I dont see how else I can bring this to your attention. (If there is an alternative please do mention, Would be happy with a Ask dang page.)
A downvote is unfriendly (although sometimes it is indeed deserved). An unfair downvote may or may not get corrected, and now I can only correct it and not give it a positive karma that I otherwise would have liked to. That does not seem to have been the HN way.
It still would have been fine if the downvote pattern would have been as before.
Compensatory upvote has been a part of HN since ever. It is not a new invention.
Its the recent uptick in downvotes on perfectly benign comments (not mine) that is bothering me.
What is bothering me is that I noticed that downvoting has acquired a distinct hair trigger edge and a tendency leaning towards petty disagreements. There is a heavy feeling of over moderation in several threads. I am not an old timer by any means but have been around for a while to know that this feels very alien on HN, unsavory too.
On the contrary, this mythical "highly toxic comment" that is being used to justify the change I have seen very little of. Far rarer than a new story with half the comments greyed out, for the entire night.
I love spending time here, I am sure you would want HN to be something like that, so wanted to bring this to your attention even though I was sure this will get downvoted. If this causes some reflection, thats a tiny cost to pay.
Finally, like with system administration, good moderation is one that is barely noticed. I sense things are getting a little overboard. Just an FYI
That's easy: email [email protected], as the guidelines say.
"Heavy feeling of over-moderation" seems to suggest that you think we're the ones doing most of the downvoting. We're not, of course; users are.
Excellent! have overlooked this, and thanks for responding.
> We're not,
Never doubted that.
This change seems highly correlated with the change of hands. I thought this would be a temporary phase, but seems to have become worse with time. I think a line of over-moderation is being crossed here.
I would try and flag my own comment so that it gets some attention. EDIT: Unfortunately it seems one cannot do that, but if you agree, and can flag this, please do.