Is it just Apple, or do other companies not get much negativity anymore that gets commenters downvotes?

It's mostly by the employees of the respective companies themselves. I once was working in a company (now a popular help desk company, famous within HN circles even) where the co/founder called up a few of his employees to downvote a comment that raised a serious but negative tone about his company. And all the employees were smart enough to use proxies to downvote the comment into oblivion. So, always think twice if it's worth losing your karma in a fixed game.

> So, always think twice if it's worth losing your karma in a fixed game.

Or I could refuse to accept the premise internet points are important and realize that downvotes aren't a reliable indication of post quality.

I'm certainly not going to be bullied by companies in to being quiet because they might take away some of my internet points.

I value my precious internet points and feel emotionally hurt with every down vote.

The year is 2014: anxious business owners obsess over Internet Points! How do I get more, they ask?

Please RT.

That's absolutely ridiculous. I'm not saying that employees of a company won't downvote negative comments, but they're a tiny, tiny, tiny minority. As in, I'd put any amount of money on <1% of downvotes related to Apple or Tesla coming from employees of those companies.

Yeah, but if you can trigger a pile-on feedback loop, it could be enough.

> It's mostly by the employees of the respective companies themselves

Your anecdote is insufficient to support this claim. One example does not make this a common practice.

Isn't gaining karma also a fixed game?

Or magbe it's because Apple is routinely (and unfairly) maligned all across the tech sphere, especially in the comments, and Apple users on less polarized sites vote to compensate.

Huh? Apple and Tesla are both darlings of the tech sphere.

have you been to /r/technology ?

Does /r/politics accurately reflect the political makeup of the US? No. Why would you assume /r/technology is representative?

Or The Verge comments? Or Slashdot?

I can't speak for the verge, but I associate slashdot with rabid apple fanboyism.

If Apple was hated, you would see the same thing happen to them that happens to Microsoft. How often do you see big Microsoft news on the front page of HN or a Microsoft liveblog on Ars Technica? Almost never, where with Apple every word they say is splattered across the news for weeks.

The interesting parts of Microsoft get a lot of press. Consider how much coverage a hypothetical Halo 5 would get before release. The real issue is MS produces little interesting new tech. Granted, I actually like developing for C# far more than most systems, but embrace and extend just does not make for much interesting news.

Windows 8.1 release and Windows 10 announcements both got flagged off the front page multiple times before finally an article was successful enough to stick around for a few hours. Same thing with the Surface Pro 3 and Windows Phone 8.1. Meanwhile iOS 8 had an article for each new feature for days.

The admins explained it that the Microsoft news triggers the flamewar prevention they built, and it happens almost every time. Microsoft articles need admins to explicitly allow them on the front page, or they're gone in minutes.