[tomhoward]

> Downvotes in HN are not a dissenting mechanism

PG stated very early on in HN's history that downvoting to signal disagreement is reasonable [1], and that's been generally accepted as a guiding principle in the community ever since (though it's not in the guidelines, so it's a matter of individual preference).

What is in the guidelines is this: "Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading." [2].

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[harperlee]

Fair point, I was mistaken on that.

How can the community learn about the rules if we should not point to or discuss the rules? If it were not for my comment, you would not have pointed that to me :)

[tomhoward]

:)

A good starting point, aside from keeping familiar with the guidelines themselves, is to follow dang's and sctb's comment threads, where issues like this are discussed freqquently. That's how I keep up.

https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=dang

https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=sctb

The reason not to comment on things like voting behaviour is that it takes discussions away from their primary topic and into the territory of being repetitive, uninteresting, and sometimes resentful and hostile. Of course that can never be avoided altogether, but it can and should be minimised :)