[iamwil]

Generally, people that pervade hacker news are pretty sensitive to cultivate a high signal to noise ratio, probably because a lot of us have the 'slippery slope' mentality, and seen what can happen if you give and inch, if Reddit and Digg are any indication.

In the guidelines: "Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. "

If your comments don't add any information to the topic at hand, it usually gets downmodded. Exceptions seem to be if they're wise-ass or snarky comments.

[euccastro]

If you honestly don't know why you're being downmodded it's legitimate to ask. That's not complaining, just learning.

[curi]

How come people who want a high signal to noise ratio, downmod a short, helpful comment which lets someone know not write "thanks" 6 times? In other words, I was asking someone to improve the signal to noise ratio.

As far as getting downmodded for my additional comments, I expected that and don't mind. I have read the rules. BTW, I do think people here are far too inclined to downmod stuff they dislike without refuting it.

[davidw]

Or, if you don't like it, let it stay at 0 or -1. No need to keep going beyond that for anything but blatant trolls.

[rms]

I upmodded every post in your comments history.

<3 downmodders.

[curi]

lol. did you read them?

[foonamefoo]

So by this logic you (and I) should be downmodded.