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Downvote system HN

5 points by thmz ↗ HN
When you don't like a comment on HN you just don't change the points of the comment. When you really think a comment is out of place you downvote a comment.

This is a great system. It keeps HN clean from flamebates an other spam.

Today my comment was downvoted. That's ok. I won't complain about that. Only this time I was very curious about the reason.

I like to be curious because I like to learn. And one of the best way's to learn is by your mistakes.

So wouldn't it be great when a downvoter must apply a simple explanation? Or could this lead to discussions about the explanation instead of the subject?

edit Changes 'posts' to 'comments'

10 comments

[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 27.4 ms ] thread
bdfh42
You can't downvote posts on HN.

You can downvote comments though. You just have to learn to live with this.

thmz
I'm sorry, I ment 'comments'.

But my question is about the 'learn to live with this'. Wouldn't it be good to learn why you were downvoted?

ilike
I like the idea of mandatory comment to downvote. I dont see any reason why someone should give an offtopic explanation for downvotes.
growt
I think this has been discussed some times before. You may be downvoted because the Downvoter doesn't agree with your point or because he (or she) thinks your comment is rubbish. There is no way to tell the reason, but so far it seems to work fine anyhow.
rick_2047
So does Windows vista for the first few hours till you do not install anything on it
thmz
There is a lot of space between "don't agree" and "rubbish".

I don't complain about this system. But I can imagine sometimes it would be nice to have an explanation.

[deleted]
(comment deleted)
pook
I can imagine it possible to require a commit-style comment, visible only on a user's profile list of comments.