[lisper]

> I am surprised you were downvoted.

I'm not. Many people seem to have lost sight of what downvotes are supposed to mean on HN. They are supposed to mean, "This comment is not constructive." Instead, people use it to mean, "I don't agree with this." So controversial opinions often get downvoted into oblivion rather quickly. It's damned annoying, especially when people don't follow up with any explanation of why they disagree.

> It is not clear that life in the oceans can survive with those levels of acidity

Actually, that's pretty clear. Some kind of life will survive, even if it's just bacteria and jellyfish. Life is incredibly robust. This is exactly the kind of hyperbole that undermines the arguments for policy changes.

This is not to say that acidification is not a serious problem. It is. But not because it will sterilize the ocean. It won't.

[greglindahl]

I downvoted because the comment wasn't a response to the article, nor did it really seem to be responding to other comments. I agree that many people make the same complaint you do, claiming that many downvoters are simply disagreeing with content. You might want to consider topicality, too.

[lisper]

I was responding to things like this:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13045831

I would have posted as a child comment, but I saw a lot of those kinds of things in the discussion even at that early stage. That's why I decided to post top-level.

But your point is well taken.

[greglindahl]

Thank you for considering my comment to be constructive! It was intended that way, and I really appreciate your response.

[duncan_bayne]

> So controversial opinions often get downvoted into oblivion rather quickly. It's damned annoying, especially when people don't follow up with any explanation of why they disagree.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who's noticing that. There are certain topics - e.g. progressive taxation, Steve Jobs, Apple and socialism - that are impossible to criticise on HN without triggering a flurry of downvotes.

[duncan_bayne]

Meta: it seems the discussion of the downvote topics generates its own downvotes.

It's futile to argue against usage - either of language, or forum software. But I don't think I'll be back to HN, at least not as a poster.