[ncouture]

On the rare occasion I make an effort to contribute my thoughts in a positive way I get downvoted but nobdy even mentions why.

Is it that obvious? Maybe someone else can tell me? I'd like to understand if it can help me improve my online etiquette or the HN rules better.

[Volundr]

Looks like you've since been upvoted, but try not to read too much into stuff like this. HN is usually decent on upvoted/downvotes, but honestly sometimes your comment just gets read first by that one random person who doesn't like it, or touches on something that a couple people disagree with. All you can do is move on. As long as you try to keep your commentary constructive, the stray randomly downvotes comment won't affect you much in the long run.

[eyelidlessness]

I can’t speak for OP but when I get unexplained/unexpected downvotes I don’t care about it affecting me eg in terms of karma. I care that I’ve contributed something I think is either helpful or at worst innocuous and people haven’t explained what they found wrong with it. I can’t learn anything from that. Usually with a similar appeal for feedback I get what OP has apparently experienced: my original comment levels out, my appeal gets downvoted. To HN’s credit this time, at least there’s been some feedback along with that.

[Cupertino95014]

I have another comment about Lord of the Flies downvotes (on the post about the HN parody). I suspect either no one wants to do anything about it, or else they think it's a feature, not a bug. They're dreaming of a world that's long gone.

The received wisdom of the rest of the social network Web is: up/down vote the comment, not the commenter. That doesn't quite solve your problem, but it's a good start.

[furyofantares]

I didn't downvote but summarizing the article in your second paragraph felt like a chore to read after having read the article, and I did initially skip the rest of the comment (which is good) because of that.

[ectopod]

Your first three paragraphs are a précis of the article so at a glance your post seems pointless. I suspect that prompted the down votes. Maybe skip the fluff.

[ncouture]

Thanks for the honest feeback. Also shortened my comment considerably to keep it to my thoughts and not the ones expressed in by the author of this article.

[verisimi]

Its meant to be that you don't downvote people just because you disagree, but in practise its different.

If I were to downvote (and I don't recollect that I ever have) I hope I would take the time to explain why.

I think your point is good - downvoting because someone is holding an unpopular but considered opinion is bad practise - ultimately it will lead to us here being in even more of an echo chamber than we are already.